So, I saw a thread a while back about 64 bit OSes but it really didn't answer the questions I have.
Basically, I want to have a less limited quantity of memory on my gaming PC (which is of course not yet built), and everything I've read says that the PAE switch is really only useful for applications built to utilize it. Things like Oracle. Things that won't be running on the computer.
On the one hand, I've read reviews of Windows XP 64 bit that say it's not very robust, on the other hand, these are reviews of right when it was released. I haven't had much/any luck finding a more recent comparison of 64 vs 32 bit Windows XP.
I'd prefer to avoid Vista for several reasons, (1) because I'm really not a fan of the interface (yes, I know that you can turn off the bells and whistles, but that seems to be the bulk of Vista and I'm lazy anyways), (2) because I've trashed it so much to just about everybody I know that it'd be somewhat hypocritical for me to switch to using Vista as a primary machine.
So I'm basically looking for some input on Windows XP 64 bit versus Windows XP 32 bit with PAE enabled.