Permalink requires /index.php/ before structure

I’ve been unable to use permalinks as designed without adding /index.php/ before the rest of the link structure. If index.php is not there it will return an error from the server as Not Found, like its ignoring what the htaccess file says and looking for the literal path.
I’m running wordpress on a virtual host that has its own domain name for testing purposes. The server is windows 2000 running Apache/1.3.33 (Win32) PHP/5.0.2. and mod_rewrite is enabled because i’m using it on another site running on the same server. I’ve looked around and added Options +FollowSymLinks and looked through my server config but nothing has done any good.