Vista - 32bit or 64bit?

Hi I have 2 questions regarding an upgrade installation of vista Ultimate.

1) i have a amd 64-4200 cpu, with 1gig of ram and a 1gig usb pen drive for
ready boost, woudl it be best for me to stick to 32-bit for the moment or
urgarde to 64-bit, since ive had this cpu for over a year it would be nice to
start using it at its full capability but is 64-bit worth it and are there
any pros and cons to this?

2) Once ive upgarded my version of xp pro to vista, would i then be able to
install that copy of xp on a laptop as i have one at the moment but it doesnt
have any os on it, or would this invalidate my upgrade to vista?

ty for any help or comments

Danny

"fusion99" <fusion99@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1B7B439D-D3CD-4D5A-9DB7-D3EE7610DC90@microsoft.com...
> Hi I have 2 questions regarding an upgrade installation of vista Ultimate.
>
> 1) i have a amd 64-4200 cpu, with 1gig of ram and a 1gig usb pen drive for
> ready boost, woudl it be best for me to stick to 32-bit for the moment or
> urgarde to 64-bit, since ive had this cpu for over a year it would be nice
> to
> start using it at its full capability but is 64-bit worth it and are there
> any pros and cons to this?
>
> 2) Once ive upgarded my version of xp pro to vista, would i then be able
> to
> install that copy of xp on a laptop as i have one at the moment but it
> doesnt
> have any os on it, or would this invalidate my upgrade to vista?
>
> ty for any help or comments
>
> Danny

1) Unless you plan on upgrading to > 4 gig of memory and plan on running 64
bit applications, you won't see enough improvement to compensate for the
hassle you may well have finding 64 bit drivers for all your hardware.

2) When you purchase an upgrade (if that's your plan), the new Vista license
*replaces* your XP license. You don't have two licenses, you have only one.
Thus, you cannot legally use your XP after installing the Vista upgrade.
Think of it as trading in your old car on a new one. Once you take delivery
of the new vehicle, you have given up all rights to the old one.

My PC wiz/programmer/repairer friend has a 2 yr old HP notebook with factory installed Vista premium 32 2GB which he upgraded to Ultimate 32 with 3GB. Then he installed W98, XP Home and XP Pro to be able to service customers with different OS. That means his notebook has 4 OS.

And because my 5 wk old notebook-HP Vista premium 64-does not support FAX (I am not happy about this....it's a quantum backward step considering that both my 2000 W98 and 2005 XP notebooks carried FAX, now replaced by FAX-less VISTA Premium. Oy!), he installed XP Pro to enable FAX thru some kind of (?) virtual PC download. For a while (3 days)until just yesterday, I had two OS in one PC. I eventually deleted XP because of tolerable minor (but disconcerting) incompatibilities with 64 bit. I think I might have acted impulsively...I should have waited for him from his out of town business trip.

In summary, done by advanced PC techie, a notebook can have more than three OS (according to him, as many as he wants).