Interesting, I wasn't aware (or forgot)! I looked into it though, and it seems like it wasn't anywhere near the minute+ mentioned in the article.
I found a GameFaqs forum thread[1] from shortly after the game launched that claims it was about 20 seconds. And a US Gamer article[2] that says the update that came a couple years later only shaved off about 5 seconds (seems within the ballpark of what I measured)