mysql stories for suse-amd64

Can anyone tell me stories about marrying mysql and suse-amd64? It'd be great to hear in some areas where folks have successfully used mysql binary distro or home-grown compiled versions of mysql, along with the hardware they have it running on. I'm not looking for performance touting. More over if anyone has a preferred ./configure options. I'm having a pickle of a time to get the mysql amd64 version to run stable on a debian pure64 install. My next venture is to see how well mysql on a suse-amd64 install runs. My hardware consists of dual opteron 250 8GB - sunfire v20z. Cheers, -.mag