Everything works except variables through the browser

I am running Apache 1.3.2 and PHP 4.3.2 . and MySQL and everything seems to work, I can even connect to the database but when I try to pass a simple variable through the browser a parsing error on line 9 or I get a blank page?
for example:
8 <body>
9 <?php echo*“Hello, $username”; ?>
10 </body>

when I type the username on the url, or even through a form nothing comes up.
http://localhost/test.php?username=flashy

I get just Hello

this works fine:
<body>
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
</body>

Can’t figure it out…
Any help would be appreciated!!!