If I change your code to the following I get "Unable to get the AutoFill property of the Range class".

use Win32::OLE;
use Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Excel';

my $excel = Win32::OLE->CreateObject ('Excel.Application') or die $!;
$excel->{Visible} = 1;

my $workbook  = $excel->Workbooks->Add;
my $worksheet = $workbook->ActiveSheet;

$worksheet->Range ('A1')->{Value} = 1;

$worksheet->Range('A1')->AutoFill({
          Destination => $worksheet->Range('A1:B17'),
          Type        => xlFillDefault,
       });
[download]

But when I change B17 to A17, it works as expected. Any idea why, given that you can select a single cell in Excel and auto-fill as many rows and columns as you like without failure.