I bought the machine -- memory, hard drive, wireless -- and failed to notice the OS although I did specifically say, "this machine has Vista Home Premium, right." I didn't mention 32 bit.
I'm ready to give it a go. Thanks for the information. I'm definitely the first on the block or even among my computer friends. I'll keep the third party drivers thing in mind. If I recall from times past that means certain functions on, say, MFC, are not available.