OK, so I gave it a swappiness haircut (60 --> 20), and an apache2 mpm_prefork haircut:
Code:
StartServers 3
MinSpareServers 3
MaxSpareServers 3
MaxRequestWorkers 50
MaxRequestsPerChild 750
wordpress still works, though it's noticeably slower (though that could also be down to slow-ass tenfourfox)
Here's a late-afternoon top screencap. I might try to grab a couple more this evening, if I can tear myself away from L4D2, so there's a pretty slim chance of that.