Well I could see on the 2G and 3G iPhone it could have some very slight affect since the OS has to do some work when things get constrained as could easily happen on those models and of course the work the OS is doing is highly marginal. The 3GS has so much more room in that sense that it is very rare for a critically low memory situation to occur and when it does it would be mostly likely caused by a 3rd party app running in the foreground which would be using more CPU/Radio/LocationServices/etc anyway. The large power drains on any mobile phone are the cell radios. Low signal or areas on the 3G/Edge line cause the battery to drain faster since the phone constantly tries to reconnect. LocationServices shouldn't have any effect when just on since they are on demand and therefore have to be used by an app.
Yeah, "slight." But a poster above was stating 20-25%, which sounds way too much. Also, he was talking about 80 MB of RAM taken up by safari causing that.