Wow, definately not faster here (dual p4 box, RedHat 9).

sed -n 's/^.*450: <\([^>]*\)>.*$/\1/p' bar > /dev/null
 57.37s user 0.08s system 99% cpu 58.002 total
perl -lne 'print $1 if /450: <([^>]+)/' bar > /dev/null 
 6.95s user 0.09s system 98% cpu 7.164 total
ruby -ne 'puts $1 if /450: <([^>]+)/' bar > /dev/null
 10.46s user 0.09s system 96% cpu 10.939 total
tarsier:~ 602> wc -l bar ; head -4 bar                         
2430000 bar
blah de bla 450: <zorch@example.com> woop
blah de bla 450: <blink@example.com> woop

blah de bla 450: <zorch@example.com> woop
blah de bla 450: <blink@example.com> woop
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