Yep, PAL has an extra 56 lines of pixels on the screen, at a loss of 10Hz from the refresh rate. So some games, if their timing is based on the VSync rather than arbitrary timing or CPU speed should run faster in NTSC. As pointed out though, this is at a cost of 56 lines from vertical resolution, probably where the OP's lives etc. were displayed.
where have you got that number from?
NTSC is 525 lines while PAL is 625
PS- ah, ok in LowRes 320 x 200 NTSC vs 320 x 256 PAL
