Apache and mod_rewrite

[CECSmoky21]

Hi everybody. I would really appreciate it if some kind sage could help me with this:

I am running my own apache2 2.0.50 ,MSQL and PHP. I use Wordpress for my website and I would like to have nice urls ( such as url.com/archives/2004/3/13/today-I instead of url.com/index.php&post=345).

I have been trying to figure out mod_rewrite for the past two weeks. I have http.conf configured such that the module is loaded on startup and I know I have to use AllowOverride, but any option i put there it gives me a 500 error if I have a .htaccess file in the directory.

On a side note my blog is in the main directory not its own, b/c my site is just the blog right now.

Thanks in advance.