VB.net is the way to go...
I am also writing a program where millisecond accuracy is important and .Net is doing it great. The speed of your computer also makes a huge difference. When running my program on a 1.7ghz processor to a 2.4ghz makes a huge difference. So get the fastest machine that you can.
There are also many articles on how to optimize code in VB.net for maximium performance. One of the ways is to use the new operators ANDALSO and ORELSE found in this article:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/usi...et03252003.asp
Good Luck.