Lithium vanadium phosphate, $Li_3V_2(PO_4)_3$ was prepared by a simple solid state route. It was found that making a fine powder of $Li_3V_2(PO_4)_3$ by the mechanical milling is very effective for increasing the insertion/extraction of lithium from $Li_3V_2(PO_4)_3$ structure. In charge/discharge test, the ball-milled $Li_3V_2(PO_4)_3$ sample exhibited a higher initial discharge capacity of 174 mAh/g in the voltage range of 3.0-4.8 V, compared with pure $Li_3V_2(PO_4)_3$ sample (152 mAh/g). Furthermore, the ball-milled $Li_3V_2(PO_4)_3$ presented not only higher cycle retention rate after 50 cycles, but also better rate capability compared with pure sample in the whole region (0.1-7 C).