Dynamically Modifying images with Database Info

What I am trying to do is plot color coded points on a map, the points are fetched from an access database, The map is a static image but needs to be modified with the color coded points, this sort of resembles the mapquest maps that are produced through their site. I was thinking of using a Java Applet to do this but I would much rather use a scripting language. What scripting language would be best to do this? Is there any other methods that would help acheive this goal better? Any help is much appreciated.