Here's another patch fixing the Visual Studio Express edition issue
plus some minor related code-cleanup.

See the Hg repo at:
  https://bitbucket.org/jurko/cpython
branch:
  jurko/distutils_msvc_express_fix

direct link:
  https://bitbucket.org/jurko/cpython/commits/branch/jurko/distutils_msvc_express_fix

Basically - native 64-bit compiler is not available with Visual Studio
Express edition, but its 32-bit to 64-bit cross-compiler is, so the fix just attempts to configure the cross-compiler if configuring the native compiler fails to set all the necessary environment variables.

Tested to work correctly with Visual Studio Express edition installed, and no additional Platform SDK.

I'm also directly attaching a bundle containing the same commits.

I've split up the changes into cleanly separated commits so they should be real easy to review & verify, and there should be no risk of breakage in use cases not explicitly attacked by the proposed changes.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,
  Jurko Gospodnetić