depends what your doing... and the languages you have in mind...
most of the time its a case of the right tool for the right job.
example would be Drivers for say a USB Joypad.
you would use the OOL C++ to interface the retrieved data to DirectX, however you'd use ASM to actually gather the data.
you do this because C++ has the interaction level to interface devices and carry out multiple operations at one time, whereas ASM you can read devices/port data directly in realtime ... this allows the device to be in sync rather than having to wait for the program sync.
Shaders are another example of when you can do this, however HLSL & Cg are changing this fact so you can use a Higher Descriptive Language.
that said, a proc langauage like PureBASIC would hold no intrinsic speed over C++ ... they both compile and run at basically the same speed - C++ will run slightly slower due to the overhead of the OOL, however on the whole that overhead is approx .006ns/operation so it isn't likely to really affect you.
Within the Epic battle of the fates the Shadow and the Angel will meet. With it will harbinger the very fight of good vs evil!