MariaDB 5.3.4 runs ontop XtraDB 1.0.17-13.0 which in turn is based on InnoDB 1.0.17 from MySQL 5.1. So indeed MySQL 5.1 or Percona Server 5.1.59-13.0 would be proper targets for a comparison with MariaDB 5.3.4.
As pointed out by Peter, sysbench runs simple queries only where MariaDB cannot …

