The ./configure script will analyze your environment and create custom Makefiles particular to your system. Aside from all the standard autoconf stuff, ./configure does the following:
You can manually specify the location of apxs by using the --with-apxs option, e.g.:
$ ./configure --with-apxs=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs
It is recommended that you specify this option.
If the fist Python binary in the path is not suitable or not the one desired for mod_python, you can specify an alternative location with the --with-python options, e.g:
$ ./configure --with-python=/usr/local/bin/python2.2