XP 32bit to 64bit

[Akuensan]

I'm considering switching from windows XP 32 to XP 64, as I am running an Athlon 64 X2 right now. I have checked for my video card and sound card and they have XP 64 drivers, but a lot of articles I am reading talk about horrible driver and program support in XP 64. Most of them are from 2005-2007 however and I am really just wondering if this is still a huge issue with XP 64 or not. Some articles and reviews say it's a good upgrade if you have more than 2GB of RAM (I will have 4GB soon as I am upgrading because of a store closing sale), and some say it's just a giant headache. Any guidance would be helpful. Thanks.

Edit: Just for potential questions, I would rather wait for Windows 7 than switching to Vista 32/64. If waiting for Windows 7 is a better choice than switching to XP 64, I'm fine with that too.

 

[Hefemeister]

The only reason to upgrade from xp to xp64 is if you have more than 3gb of ram installed. Even if you have 4gb installed it is not that big of a deal. You loose .5gb due to os constraints and whatever amount of gpu ram you have.

If you did want to go 64bit I would install vista home premium 64bit instead of xp64. It would be better going forward. If you could wait until early 2010ish you could go with win7 64bit when it is released.

 

[Akuensan]

I will most likely just stick with XP32 for now then, as I'd rather wait for Windows 7 release myself. I am using a GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB card, so I would be losing about .5GB from that and .5GB from using a 32bit OS, as I understand it. I'm mostly just wondering from a performance point of view more than anything. If I have 4GB of RAM, is it going to be worth it to use Vista64 over XP32? I've tried Vista briefly, but I really didn't find it very enjoyable.

 

[Lexluethar]

If you don't want to go to Vista 64 bit, just wait for Windoss 7 64 bit IMO.