I was looking for the same information. Finally found the answer from the link on the answer above by @Straseus
http://arguments.callee.info/2010/04/20/running-apache-and-node-js-together/
Here is the final solution to run apache website on port 80, node js service on port 8080 and use .htaccess RewriteRule
In the DocumentRoot of the apache website, add the following:
Options +FollowSymLinks -MultiViews
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
# Simple URL redirect:
RewriteRule ^test.html$ http://arguments.callee.info:8000/test/ [P]
# More complicated (the user sees only "benchmark.html" in their address bar)
RewriteRule ^benchmark.html$ http://arguments.callee.info:8000/node?action=benchmark [P]
# Redirect a whole subdirectory:
RewriteRule ^node/(.*) http://arguments.callee.info:8000/$1 [P]
For the directory level redirect, the link above suggested (.+) rule, which requires one or more character after the 'node/'. I had to convert it to (.*) which is zero or more for my stuff to work.
Thanks a lot for the link @Straseus