I would not really recommend storing the passwords un-encrypted, if your on a shared server you'll find that anyone with shell will have access to your mysql tables, and you don't really want them having your passwords.
Such as a competitor might buy a $9.95 account on your server just to get access to your admin passwords and thats you in trouble. This is all hypothetical btw :P
If he used the same password, the hashed password will be the same so this query will find it.
SELECT * FROM user WHERE password=MD5("password")
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