Best language to develop a server

[olivarra1]

Hi, i'm starting a project about a MMO. As client side it's a ActionSctipt application that will connect to the server though XMLSocket (wich allows TCP connections, alredy tested that i can send data without xml format), but i think i can develop it with java though.

The server, by now, it's being developed with PHP, since it's easy to use, specially for the database connection. But i'm wondering if PHP is strong enough to hold a MMO. The users it has to handle it's expected to be something like OGame or those web-based MMOs, but it's required an open connection between the server and the client.

My other two altrenatives, which i can think on, are c++ or java. I have read a lot that those are the more common languages used for server programming, but i tried database connections, and i couldn't make them work :/

I try to avoid java, since i know it's considerably slower than c++ in algorithms.

So, my questions are: can PHP handle all those TCP connections simultaneously? Which language you think its better for server developing? Do you know any easy guide for TCP and Database connections of c++ or java?

Thank you very much,
olivarra1