I unpack the source to php.
I run configure like this:
./configure --target=i386-redhat-linux --prefix=/usr --with-config-file-path=/etc --disable-debug --enable-pic --enable-inline-optimization --with-apxs=/usr/sbin/apxs --disable-static --with-exec-dir=/usr/bin --with-regex=system --with-gettext --with-gd --with-jpeg-dir=/usr --with-png --with-zlib --with-db2 --with-db3 --with-gdbm --enable-debugger --enable-magic-quotes --enable-safe-mode --enable-sysvsem --enable-sysvshm --enable-track-vars --enable-yp --enable-ftp --without-mysql --with-xml --with-interbase=/usr --with-mcal=/usr/local/mcal

I run:
make

There are no errors.  Here are the last few lines for reference:
Making all in TSRM
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/TSRM'
/bin/sh ../libtool --silent --mode=compile gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I..   -DEAPI -DXML_BYTE_ORDER=12  -g -O2 -c TSRM.c
/bin/sh ../libtool --silent --mode=compile gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I..   -DEAPI -DXML_BYTE_ORDER=12  -g -O2 -c tsrm_strtok_r.c
/bin/sh ../libtool --silent --mode=compile gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I..   -DEAPI -DXML_BYTE_ORDER=12  -g -O2 -c tsrm_virtual_cwd.c
/bin/sh ../libtool --silent --mode=link gcc  -g -O2  -o libtsrm.la   TSRM.lo tsrm_strtok_r.lo tsrm_virtual_cwd.lo  
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/TSRM'
Making all in .
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1'
/bin/sh /usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/libtool --silent --mode=compile gcc  -I. -I/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/ -I/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1 -I/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/main -I/usr/include/apache -I/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/Zend -I/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1 -I/usr/local/mcal/include -I/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/ext/xml/expat/xmltok -I/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/ext/xml/expat/xmlparse -I/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/TSRM  -DEAPI -DXML_BYTE_ORDER=12 -g -O2  -c stub.c
/bin/sh /usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/libtool --silent --mode=link gcc  -I. -I/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/ -I/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1 -I/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/main -I/usr/include/apache -I/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/Zend -I/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1 -I/usr/local/mcal/include -I/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/ext/xml/expat/xmltok -I/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/ext/xml/expat/xmlparse -I/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/TSRM  -DEAPI -DXML_BYTE_ORDER=12 -g -O2   -o libphp4.la -rpath /usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/libs -avoid-version -L/usr/local/mcal/lib  -R /usr/local/mcal/lib stub.lo  Zend/libZend.la sapi/apache/libsapi.la main/libmain.la  ext/dba/libdba.la ext/ftp/libftp.la ext/gd/libgd.la ext/gettext/libgettext.la ext/interbase/libinterbase.la ext/mcal/libmcal.la ext/pcre/libpcre.la ext/posix/libposix.la ext/session/libsession.la ext/standard/libstandard.la ext/sysvsem/libsysvsem.la ext/sysvshm/libsysvshm.la ext/xml/libxml.la ext/yp/libyp.la ext/zlib/libzlib.la TSRM/libtsrm.la -lpam -ldl -lz -lmcal -lgds -ljpeg -lz -lpng -lgd -ldb -ldb2 -lgdbm -lresolv -lm -ldl -lcrypt -lnsl -lresolv -L/usr/lib -ljpeg
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1'
Making all in pear
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/pear'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1/pear'

I run:
make install

There are no errors until the very end:
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1'
/usr/sbin/apxs -i -a -n php4 libs/libphp4.so
cp libs/libphp4.so /usr/lib/apache/libphp4.so
cp: cannot stat `libs/libphp4.so': No such file or directory
apxs:Break: Command failed with rc=1
make[1]: *** [install-sapi] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/php-4.0.3pl1'
make: *** [install-recursive] Error 1

The error is correct, there are no files in the libs directory.