a lot of cgi scripts (perl 5, php 3). when the perl code was clean enough, we used mod_perl. i remember discovering fastcgi (which i still use) and being blown

a lot of cgi scripts (perl 5, php 3). when the perl code was clean enough, we used mod_perl. i remember discovering fastcgi (which i still use) and being blown away by easy persistent db connections and just general performance wins. on more serious projects, java (servlets, custom middle-tier) was common.