32-bit computing is what we've had for a while. intel, AMD and others have been trying to move us away from 32-bit x86 for a while, but the general public wouldn't have any of the efforts that the companies all tried. As a result of that, a lot of apps are still written with only 32-bit in mind, and treat 64-bit as an afterthought of the compilation process. So while migration from 32-bit to 64-bit (with regards to software) should be transparent to the user and the programs, the need for 64-bit drivers that could properly address all of this becomes paramount. and most simply don't even bother. In the future, we will need to move to 64-bit; problem is, too many software makers (and especially device driver makers) are dragging their feet on it as much as possible.
PC World wrote an article about the upcoming 64bit processing back in 2003 that helped me understand about it. Although it's a few years old it still clears up some basics of 32bit & 64bit processing.
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