Otherwise stick with the more widely accepted 32 bit standard.
I sort of take mild exception to this.
First, while it is quite clear what is intended, there is no 32-bit "standard".
Additionally,the only thing that a 64-bit operating system does differently, or, to be precise, that 64-bit windows does differently, is that you cannot use 32-bit drivers. They've gone to a LOT of trouble to make sure 32-bit programs work perfectly fine, as a result of the WOW64 (Windows on Windowx64) "emulator".
people think Oh no, an Emulator! my 32-bit programs will go slowly!
Not at all. Wow64 is, just like Wow32 for 16-bit applications before it, not really an emulator, it's more of a layer between the application and the true operating system, much in the sense that WINE is on Linux (WINE-Wine Is Not An Emulator).
Now, in all fairness, if you are running an Itanium, 32-bit programs will go slower. but since the Itanium isn't backwards compatible with the x86 architecture in any real way you need a 64-bit operating system for it anyway, so the choice is made for you.
The reason we even have this "choice" is due to two factors:
1. the now commonplace use of 64-bit CPU's and supporting chipsets in almost every consumer PC, which is nothing to be surprised at. The first 32-bit processor, the 386, came out nearly 5 years before any real headway was made on an actual 32-bit operating system, and at least another 2 years before it became commonplace in homes (Windows 95). So, some may think that I am saying we should stick with 32-bit for a while longer. Not so. The Itanium was the "386" of the 64-bit architecture. it was an early foray into the new bit width and the various issues it brought for hardware and software compatibility. AMD improved
Immensely on Intel and created the AMD64 architecture, which was far more efficient dealing with 32-bit programs since it still supported the x86 instructions Nearly 4 generations of processors, and probably more have been released all sporting full 64-bit support for the same IA-64 (Intel/AMD 64) architecture. Three Windows versions have been released that have 64-bit versions, XP x64, Windows Vista 64-bit, and Windows 7 64-bit (the latter two make a number of improvements on the first, but they are all far from "non-standard".
2. the fact that these CPU are still backward compatible at all.
Many people don't even consider this. There is no law saying that new processors MUST support 32-bit instructions, just as there was no decree of any form like that for previous generations. The Itanium only half supported 32-bit and they ran slower on it then on an actual 32-bit machine; it wasn't designed for compatibility.
There are a number of fallacies about 64-bit Operating Systems:
"I cannot run my old 32-bit programs on a 64-bit Operating System"
False. All AMD64 supported Operating Systems can run 32-bit programs natively. Running a 32-bit program under windows x64 is no slower then running htat same program under a 32-bit version of windows. The only difference is that a 32-bit version of windows cannot ever run a 64-bit application.
"If I use a 64-bit OS, I need more memory"
Also false. the oft quoted "but handles are going to be twice as big". Yes. very good. 64 is twice 32. Thank you for doing the math. The size of a Pointer/handle is irrelevant. Pointers point to data. data is almost always going to be larger then the handle, regardless of the bit width of the handle itself. The difference between 4 bytes (32-bits) and 8 bytes (64 bits) becomes less of a concern when you realize such pointers often point at megabytes of data. Additionally, this Handle size only applies to actual 64-bit applications. any 32-bit program you run will still be a 32-bit program and still live in a 32-bit world using 32-bit handles and talking to 32-bit API functions and geting back 32-bit results and wondering if 32-bit is all there is and so forth. Since almost all of the core of windows, such as Explorer and the various DLLs, are 64-bit in the 64-bit version, you are going to see speed increases. a 64-bit register can contain more data, as we've just discussed with the genius mathematicians ywho brought us (omg 64 is bigger then 32). Because operations on registers often take a single clock cycle, a 64-bit processor operates on 64-bits at a time. An ADD instruction works on two 64-bit registers, rather then on two 32-bit registers. Guess how much faster the addition of 64-bit integers is on a 64-bit processor? over twice as fast. This isn't even counting the improvements in the drivers and chipset functionality when running in 64-bit "mode".
