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@bernard
Simple answer that you are looking for: You will end up going faster, both on average and in absolute terms, with a geared bike. I was asking myself this same question a while ago as I love my fixed gear bike, but I am glad I went for it. At first you'll not feel anything different but then your training and habits will change in many ways, making you much faster if you want to be, for example:
On the flats with gears, you will probably initially prefer to find the ratio that matches what you are used to. You'll have the same average speed. But with the gears, you can start to shift to progressively higher gears while working on maintaining your cadence. After a couple of months your comfortable spinning gear will increase. You will feel stronger, your thighs will probably look bigger, and you will be faster.
For climbs, you are probably used to getting up and powering up hills. This is generally a faster way to climb short distances, but only as long as you can maintain the cadence against the higher resistance. With gears, you can practice shift to a lower gear and maintaining your comfortable cadence. Spinning too much is a waste of energy and you can burn out. The trick is to find the gear that allows you to keep your cadence, appl comfortable force into the pedals, stay sitting in the saddle, and ultimately maintaining a good pace. You'll still have the option of powering up in a high gear when you feel it's right, eg, towards the finish line.
For descending, you can select a very high gear and use it to accelerate much faster down straights and out of corners. Coming down a big big climb with a 53/12, for example, there is no limit to how fast you can push it. The only thing to worry about is keeping your head down and holding the fucker upright.