Can distribution affect performance?

I was recently browsing the web, looking for some lite GNU/Linux distros and I came up with this comment on Sparkys Linux Lite 1.0.8 review http://imgur.com/MARqeZW My question is: Is it possible that, for example, Arch with and LXDE would perform better rather than Ubuntu with LXDE (Lubuntu). If so, which distro is the fastest in your opinion?