PHP - MSSQL

Folks... I have a situation where I need a Visual Basic program, running on a win2k server to store some data. I later need a PHP script to come along, retrieve and parse that data. I have a MS SQL server running on the win2k server along with the VP program. I then have a RedHat/Apache box that the PHP script is running on, which also has MySQL. My first thought was to have the VP app store the data in a MS SQL table (since this is the easiest for the VP programmer), and then I (the PHP programmer) would have to figure out how to connect the the MS SQL table with PHP. I know this is possible, but I've also heard it can be messy (recompiling PHP..... installing odbc drivers which sometimes give errors.... etc). The other option, is to do it the other way around. Have the VB guy write the data to a MySQL table, which then would be a piece of cake for me to retrieve with PHP. What I don't know, is how easy it is for VB to talk to MySQL. Anyone have experience with either way? I know PHP fairly well, but I'm not too sure about the installation/compiling/etc process to get odbc working. Any tips or advice would be appreciated. Thanks! Joseph