I am developing an online text-based game similar to Mafia wars. Of course I won't expect 20 million players on my site, but I want to choose a web server that is suitable for me.
I am a complete amateur when it comes to hosting a website. I need the minimum specifications for a web server to host my game. Let's say about 12000 users will register to my website and I expect 1000 users to be online at any given time.
Since it's a game you would expect many database transactions and Ajax calls in which speed will prove essential.
So what should I ask for in a web server (processor, storage, bandwidth,...etc.) and their values.
Thanks in advance.
PS: I use PHP (zend framework) on a mysql database + JQuery and CSS3.