On Win32 you should try ADO datbase access (really fast).
This makes converting most VB apps to Perl really easy.
Since Perl supoports OLE try this:

#!c:\perl\bin\perl -w
use OLE;

# create ADO auto object
$conn = CreateObject OLE "ADODB.Connection" || die "CreateObject: $!";

# connect to data source
$conn->Open('Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=accessDB.mdb
+');

# query
$sql = 'SELECT * FROM my_table_name';

# build recordset
$rs = $conn->Execute($sql);

# loop through recordset
while(!$rs->EOF())
{
    print $rs->Fields('my_field_name')->Value;
    $rs->MoveNext();
}
# shut down the recordset
$rs->Close();
# close the data source
$conn->Close();
[download]