In some cases it is, in some cases it's not. In a way it depends on what you mean by "better performance." If you're not careful with your CFLAGS, you can end up with some pretty under-performing stuff. If you pull from the unstable branch, you can end up with some unstable stuff. On the other hand, if you're careful with your CFLAGS and stick with the stable branch, Gentoo can certainly outperform other distros.
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