The best way to interact with MySQL is via PEAR (Think of a young CPAN). There's a module that allows complete OO interaction with mysql, it's very nice.
This looks like a pretty nice tutorial:
vulcanonet.com.
Most PHP installations comes with pear, if it doesn't have it, run:
lynx -source
http://go-pear.org/ | php
Then you can just do:
pear install DB
Any probs, feel free to ask