actually running PHP 4.1.2-audit
_
configure command:
?'./configure' '--without-db' '--with-apache=./apache' 
'--with-mysql=/usr/local' '--with-mcrypt=/usr/local' 
'--with-zlib=/usr' '--with-db3=/usr/local' 
'--disable-debug'
_
I was doing something unnecessary with preg_replace to a 
variable --

$var = preg_replace("[\(|\)]","\0",$var);

-- before using it in an INSERT query, like so:

$SQL = "INSERT into theTable (theField) VALUES 
('".$var."')";
mysql_query($SQL,$conn);

and all I got was a blank entry for the field insert.  
Basically, the preg was stripping out "()" parenthesis and 
leaving me with the string inside the parenthesis.  the 
mysql_query must have seen the "\0" null terminator and 
thrown away the entire string.  When I changed the preg 
function to:

$var = preg_replace("[\(|\)]","",$var);

everything worked the way it was supposed to.
I know there was no good reason for me to replace with a 
null terminator but maybe this is a bug?  when I printed 
the variable out to debug I could see the string, minus the 
parenthesis, as I intended.  this is what left me confused 
for quite some time.  maybe this isn't a bug but it's 
definitely only happening in the mysql_query function, not 
PHP, so I thought I should report it.