Windows 64 or 32 bit?

[Leo Brennan]

Hello everyone.
I'm trying to get some feedback on choosing a 64-bit version of Windows or a 32-bit version. I have heard that many older programs are 32-bit and would not work properly in a 64-bit environment. Is the performance gain (if any) worth the chance of older programs possibly not working? Also, is there a performance gain and if so, is it significant? Thanks.

-Leo

[David (PassMark)]

There is a benchmark comparision done between 32bit and 64bit O/S here.

For the most part, only programs that use device drivers might have a problem in 64bit. So hardware is more of a problem than software.

But most hardware and software compamies now fully support 64bit. The situation was different 3 years back however.