[type map files](http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_negotiation.html#typemaps).
That should avoid this problem.
--[[Joey]]
+
+Update: A non-intrusive fix is to add this to apache configuration.
+This tunes the "quality" of the rss and atom files, in an apparently currently
+undocumented way (though someone on #httpd suggested it should get documented).
+Result is that apache will prefer serving index.html. --[[Joey]]
+
+ AddType application/rss+xml;qs=0.8 .rss
+ AddType application/atom+xml;qs=0.8 .atom