You need to consult a good definition of KML vs. KMZ as well as the KML tutorial and KML documentation.

That being said, the reason your files looks "garbled" in notepad is that KMZ files are zipped files to conserve space (using the same zip algorithm that you can undo using Windows open zipped folder, 7-Zip, Winzip, and so forth). You don't want to use Winmerge to compare two KMZ files, because they are binary files. Unzip the files using your favorite zip program and then compare.

Or, if you want to test directly, use WWW::Mechanize to retrieve the file, copy it to your local PC, and then attempt to load it using Google Earth. If the overlay works, then WWW::Mechanize is doing the right thing (which I'm pretty confident it is).

Update I almost forgot to mention, KML files by default are XML encoded using UTF-8

In reply to Re: Trouble downloading .KMZ files with www-mechanize by Sinistral
in thread Trouble downloading .KMZ files with www-mechanize by cbouwkamp

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