in reply to Best way to check for 64-bit support

And what exact configuration option should I check?

In the Makefile.PL, I would:
if($Config::Config{ivsize} < 8) { print "Bailing out - 64-bit integers (IV) are required\n"; exit 0; }
As pryrt correctly suggested, this will result in no cpan-tester feedback being sent to you. Nor will it be registered anywhere as a "FAIL".
There's actually no need to explicitly use Config; (though you can, if you want) because ExtUtils::MakeMaker has already loaded it.

Cheers,
Rob