nginx is a good tool, and you should probably twiddle with it sometime so you know what it's about.
As far as I know, nginx can do anything Apache can do. nginx is generally faster than Apache. Apache can include modules without a recompile, nginx often requires you recompile to add features. nginx can be used as a reverse-proxy, a load balancer, or a thin SSL / SPDY layer, and succeed; Apache isn't as well suited to non-traditional web serving.
Personally, I find nginx's configuration syntax nicer to read and write than Apache's.
LAMP is fine for small experimental websites. Do what you're comfortable with! The scale at which the differences between nginx and Apache actually matters is pretty large.
As far as I know, nginx can do anything Apache can do. nginx is generally faster than Apache. Apache can include modules without a recompile, nginx often requires you recompile to add features. nginx can be used as a reverse-proxy, a load balancer, or a thin SSL / SPDY layer, and succeed; Apache isn't as well suited to non-traditional web serving.
Personally, I find nginx's configuration syntax nicer to read and write than Apache's.
LAMP is fine for small experimental websites. Do what you're comfortable with! The scale at which the differences between nginx and Apache actually matters is pretty large.