mod_perl with Apache::Registry is only saving you the compilation time (compiling source/loading modules).

The compilation and execution of your script compared to the fetch (opening a socket, sending the request, connecting, waiting for the server to fork, starting perl, compiling, executing and sending response) is a relativly small amount of time. If index.cgi is a slow script then it just makes the comparison even more moot.

A better benchmark might be a script that contains a large data structure, lots of modules or simple parses a CGI request and prints a response.

-Lee

"To be civilized is to deny one's nature."