What should i learns?

I am an optimization freak.
I've only used C and Assembly in my whole life (except the markup language HTML to make a silly webpage for myself.)
But now i have to design a website for someone i know, and i'll ask you anonymous, what should i learn?

Since i am an opt.freak i'd like my website to be ultra fast.
What should i use for a database? MySQL ? RoR ?
What is the fastest? PHP ? Perl or Ruby? something else? (coldfusion? lol)

in before haskell, lisp, forced indentation of the code, opera browser, too bad * is slow as fuck etc.

OO PHP 5.2 is a solid and great web language with tons of documentation at php.net as well as quick tutorials at zend.com in the developer section.

I don't see why your all bashing PHP when at least its FOCUSED as a web language and does it well.  If you intend to do WEB coding use a WEB language.  Also, if its a blog, why are we concerned about micro seconds difference in language speeds?  Yesh...

PHP+MySQL easiest solution and they are solid.  More and more companies are beginning to use PHP...