mysql performance way down with php

[Shalendra Majmundar]

It is really a php question, but I thought this active group may have an
answer for me :)

A search yeilding 2500 records from one table in mysql takes 0.22 sec as
shown by the
time command. Same query from php took 1 minute 20 secs. I even tried
compiling php for stand-alone parsing, and from php shell (command line)
it erred out with "Exceeded 30 seconds time limit".

What am I missing?? Please post me on any tip to boost performance.
Versions:
        O/S RedHat 2.0.36
        PHP 3.0.5
        MySql: 3.22.20a

Thanks in advance!
Sam