Ruby speed comparison

Hello,

I want to use ruby as an embedded scripting language within a c++ server. As
an alternative to ruby I also took a look on python. I noticed that it is
possible to precompile scripts in python and run them later without the need
to recompile the script. As I didn’t find the same possibility within the
ruby C-API I’m worrying about the speed penalties if I use ruby.
So is it possible to precompile a ruby script (I don’t want to have an .exe
I want to have something like a precompiled .jar oder .class from java)?
If this isn’t possible the question is if ruby isn’t too slow for my usage
because I plan to use the scripting language very frequently within the
program. Are there any performance benchmarks available?

Thanks in advance,
Markus