simutrans | Mirror of Simutrans SVN Repository | Version Control System library

As a hobby project, I am trying to compile the open source game Simutrans with Visual Studio Express 2015 (as a precursor to making some small changes to gameplay). It requires a few common libraries (bzip, pthreads, SDL, and possibly Allegro). Both the Simutrans compilation instructions and some of the SDL documentation seem to assume that people should or will build these libraries themselves. From searching Stack Overflow and other forums, I have learned that this is sometimes necessary if you are porting something to an exotic platform (BeOs on PowerPC?!), in order to improve your programming knowledge, or because you want specific compilation options. None of these apply to me: I am using a bog standard Wintel system and I don't want to learn about SDL; just learning C++ and Simutrans will take years. Will compiling the libraries from source on my own computer [edit: noticeably] improve performance in any way, or have any other advantage relevant to my situation?

This is my first programming project in almost three decades, so please assume you are talking to a complete beginner with minimal knowledge.