install apache 2.0 - source or rpm?

[Andy Firman <andy firman us>]

I am trying to build an apache 2.0.48 rpm for 
RedHat 9 like this:

# rpmbuild -ta httpd-2.0.48.tar.gz
error: Failed build dependencies:
        db3-devel is needed by httpd-2.0.48-1

It seems RedHat 9 has db4 and not db3:
# rpm -qa |grep db3
# rpm -qa |grep db4
db4-4.0.14-20
db4-devel-4.0.14-20
db4-utils-4.0.14-20

Not sure what to do as I can't find db3 for RedHat 9.

A more basic question is, what is the preferred way
to get the latest software into RedHat 9?

Should I just compile from source and run out of 
/usr/local ?

Or should I really try hard to stay with the package
management system?

Thanks,
Andy