3.23 or 3.55 Behind a 318

It's complicated.
As to the starter gear,it's all about effective gear. From 3.23 to 3.55 is about 10% and from the tallest tire that will fit in an A-body being about a 28 then 10% less is 25.2 or about the smallest you would likely use. So in this case the tall tires with 3.55s would cruise at about the same rpm as the shorts with 3.23s. The effective gearing is the same.
After that, it's all about the stall-speed.
If your TC stalls at 1800 and your engine makes 140 ftpounds there, then with 3.55s it will effectively put 140x2.45x3.55x24/28=1044 ftlbs to the pavement. If you increase the stall and find 10% more torque, say 154ftlbs, then you can use 3.23s for 154x2.45x3.23x24/28=1045 ftlbs. And your car will take off from zero mph, about the same.
Of course 1045 to the pavement,is a very lo-performance take-off.
But say you put a 2800TC in there, and still 28s and 3.55s, and a 4bbl and upped the compression, and found yourself with 320 ftlbs, then;
320x2.45x3.55x24/28 then you get 2385 tire-frying ftlbs.... Yes still with 3.55s. Now, the guy in the next lane with a lo-Compression 360, a big lumpy cam, and a very low-stall, with 3.91s, might put out 280ftlbs; and so at zero mph, might be putting down 280x2.45x3.91x24/28=2299 to the pavement.
So, as you can see, it's complicated.
Gears can make or break a combo, but stall can totally choke it, and there is about a 10% variance in "effective TM" Torque-Multiplication, going from tallest to smallest tires.
Once the car begins to move, then it's a whole nuther story.