Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) are characterized by open structure, lack of standard infrastructure and un-accessibility to the trusted servers. The performance of various MANET routing protocols is significantly affected due to frequently changing network topology, confined network resources and security of data packets. In this paper, a simulation based performance comparison of one of the most commonly used on-demand application oriented routing protocols, AODV (Ad hoc on-demand Distance Vector) and its optimized versions R-AODV (Reverse AODV) and PHR-AODV (Path hopping based Reverse AODV) has been presented. Basically the paper evaluates these protocols based on a wide set of performance metrics by varying both the number of nodes and the nodes maximum speed. A NS-2 based simulation study shows that, as compared to AODV and PHR-AODV, R-AODV enhances the packet delivery fraction by 15-20% and reduces the latency approximately by 50%. R-AODV requires lesser node energy for data transmission.