Yep - 1.5 is pretty crappy.
I believe you're using the MinGW compiler - you could consider switching to dmake available at http://search.cpan.org/~shay/dmake-4.7-20061120-SHAY/(though dmake should also work fine with the MS compilers, ftm). Actually, that CPAN version of dmake is more recent than what I'm using ... I must update.

Just install as per the instructions in the readme. My crystal ball also tells me that you're using ExtUtils::FakeConfig with ActivePerl. That being so, you'll need to reinstall EU::FC so that it uses dmake instead.

The version of nmake you were asking about is available somewhere on the MS website (though I don't have a link) as part of one of the packages (I don't know which) that makes up their free command line compiler. In the meantime, don't be surprised if some kind soul emails you a copy of nmake-7.0.

Have you considered trying Strawberry perl ? It's built using the MinGW compiler - and both the MinGW compiler and dmake ship with it. By installing PPM you can also then install the ppm packages that are available (if you want to).

Or maybe even build perl yourself from source using MinGW and dmake ... it's not that difficult.

Cheers,
Rob
Update: Actually, with either a decent version of nmake (ie 7.0) or dmake, you shouldn't need to use ExtUtils::FakeConfig with recent versions of ActivePerl - though I haven't personally tested wrt Tk. There's a good chance it would build successfully with just 'perl Makefile.PL', '*make test', and '*make install'.