Best distros for servers are CentOS, Debian. you can install them without graphic environment (onli CLI). Ubuntu and Fedora has server edition with graphic environment. This distributions are comming with apache/mysql/and_other_daemons.

If you want to isntall apache/mysql/and_other_daemons by hand you may try gentoo. WIth this distro you can configure everything you need and to compile everything.

also you can remove apache/mysql/and_other_daemons but i think its better to use the pre-configurated ones, becaouse some of them has security paches wich are not a part of the offical sources.

In my opinion you should use Debian, but if you want to start with same more friendly you can use Ubuntu Server Edition + X Server + Gnome Desktop.

for me, DEBIAN.
because the people saidme it's more stable

SLACKWARE!

-- Honestly, I don't know if it matters ? In any linux distribution you can strip it down to basics and make it what you want. Security is what you make of it. Obviously, if you want an out-of-box solution, it'd probably be better to go with a distro that has nothing but what you need.. To me, Slackware fulfills that role.

No need for a bloated OS :>, it's just going to sit in a corner and collect dust (:

I agree with Ajay.

I use Slackware for my own site Tuxopia.net

Slackware can be installed and tweaked to be lean by installing only those packages that you really need.

A server doesnot require any X packages. You wont need any media capability as well, neither will you any other services like bluetooth, etc, etc.

so use any distro that allows you to customize what you install..

Other examples are Debian, Arch and Gentoo.