Quote Originally Posted by sapi
Well, you can actually

I'm running 32bit Vista precisely to avoid the driver and game compatibility problems (I know, it's hard to imagine worse support than for 32bit, but it's there)

For productivity I absolutely agree with you, though.
If you have 32 bit software and hardware and if you are a "tinker" there is no limit what you can do in a 64 bit evironment.
There are a lot of workarounds for this. Just scan the internet and you will find many "cookbooks" for this.

For everyday users that hardly knows what a driver is... go safe. Buy a 32 bit system. This way you can only use 32 bit software.
If you are a pro and want to have a serious system with more than 3 GB of RAM... 64 bit system is the way to go.

For the record... I personally have a 32 bit system and will not "upgrade" yet.
My next system will probably be a 64 bit system with at least 4 GB Ram.
At work we have 64bit servers... some even have quad core processors (cheaper OS license vs. several processors ) and lots of RAM.