Instead of compiling an old version of SQLite to create a database using an older database format that the version of SQLite bundled with PDO can handle, you can (much more easily) just run the query "PRAGMA legacy_file_format = TRUE;" BEFORE creating the database (if you have an existing database, run ".dump" from the sqlite shell on your database, run the sqlite shell on a new database, run the PRAGMA, then paste the contents of the .dump). That will ensure SQLite creates a database readable by SQLite 3.0 and later.