question about distro architecture

[OriginalGnome]

I was considering dl;ing a 64bit linux distro but it appears that it mmay be more trouble than its worth. I get the impression that there simply isn't enough true 64bit support yet. (hopefully Vista will change this...eventually - thanks Redmond ).

Anyway, i was thus going to dl a 32bit version - however, i have a dual core 6600 intel processor (x86_64 i believe). Does that mean that i have to dl a distro based on that architecture?

If so, why do they all indicate that that means its for 64bit only? How do i get a 32bit distro runnning on a 64bit proccessor much like my XP is now, if all the distro's force u to dl the 64bit ver for x86_64 proccessors?



Thanks.

[Juan Pablo]

I was considering dl;ing a 64bit linux distro but it appears that it mmay be more trouble than its worth. I get the impression that there simply isn't enough true 64bit support yet. (hopefully Vista will change this...eventually - thanks Redmond ).

I don't think so, the OS may use 64 bitbut all the other apps are designed for 32 bit, to make full use of 64 bit, developers need to rewrite the code

Anyway, i was thus going to dl a 32bit version - however, i have a dual core 6600 intel processor (x86_64 i believe). Does that mean that i have to dl a distro based on that architecture?

You can either use x86 or x86_64.

I How do i get a 32bit distro runnning on a 64bit proccessor much like my XP is now, if all the distro's force u to dl the 64bit ver for x86_64 proccessors?

You don't need to do anything extra to run a 32 bit distro on a 64 bit processor