Help with MySQL and Unicode (UTF8)

Hi all,
This may not be a WO direct question, but maybe someone could help me 
anyway, or at least point me to something I should have found before 
posting;)

I want to work only in UTF8, so I know how to do it in WO (it should be 
easier though), but my main problem is with the database. I'm using 
MySQL provided with Panther server (4.0.16 I think) on the server and 
it seems this version doesn't support UTF8...
So I'm actually trying to install the 4.1.2-Alpha on a local machine, 
and even if everything looks good with MySQL's package, I have some 
weird things happening:
-the startup item doesn't work, I don't even get a message in any log. 
It's the same if I leave it in the default location 
(/Library/StartupItems/) or in the system's one 
(/System/Library/StartupItems)
NB: I can start the MySQL server from the command line, but it won't be 
an option to do it on the server every time we need to reboot.
-If I don't set a password for the root account, everything seems to 
work correctly, I can use CocoaMySQL and phpMyAdmin to administer the 
database, but if I set a root password, both phpMyAdmin and CocoaMySQL 
can't connect anymore (of course I changed the conf file of phpMyAdmin, 
and add the password for the root account in CocoaMySQL;))

So did anyone have any success with MySQL 4.1 on OS X (start at boot, 
CocoaMySQL and/or phpMyAdmin can connect)?
Or is there another way to make the database provided with Panther 
(4.0.16) works with UTF8?

I could try to move to PostgreSQL for example, but will it resolves my 
UTF8 problem, and what would be the benefits for moving to it? I may 
move to another database in the futur, but for now I have to stick with 
one of the "free" option.

Thanks a lot for your support, hope we'll get some great news about WO 
at WWDC;)

Sincerely,

Xavier