your 64bit OS will find most standard drivers (EX- touchpad, keyboard, chipset generic sound cards cd rom ect...) anything fancy like scanners, printers, good graphic cards, decent sound cards, tv-tuners, and wireless will need to find 64bit drivers. you can find them by going to the manufactures website.
when i experimented with vista 64bit i found if a 64bit driver was not available for vista, but there was one for xp, SOMETIMES that one works. (my epson printer anyways)
in my own research i found that going 64bit really provides jack in performance increase *currently* (i know this will start a debate) but there is no true 64bit processor on the market for home computing, plus most apps are designed for 32 bit environments. the only real benefit of a 64 bit OS is the security. and for the security you will give up compatibility.
have you tried nero recode 2? specifically designed to use 4 processor if you have them. win dvd creator? adobe?
I have. I have a tri-boot system. xp 64 is my video encoder xp. it's kill the 32 bit version in time and performance for video relate applications.
some people actually cared enuff to write 64 bit applications. I know most people don't. that will change over time when people get to understand it's vastly superior potential over 32 bit. then maybe I can use it as a full time system
remember when 32 bit first came out? people were saying the exact same things that you just said