In general, all artificial benchmarks are evil. However, everything else being equal (algorithmic approach), you can make improvements on a relative basis. However, it should be noted that I don't use Perl, so I can't argue in its favor. That being said, with Python you can try using Pyrex or Cython to improve performance. Or, if you are adventurous, you can try converting the Python code into C++ via ShedSkin (which works for most of the core language, and some - but not all, of the core modules).
Nevertheless, you can follow some of the tips posted here:
http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonSpeed/PerformanceTips
