Need quick advise: How much faster is XP Pro 64 vs. XP Pro on a 64-bit CPU

[Toasty_Squirrel]

I'm in a time crunch as I need to rebuild a graphical production computer ASAP. I've got the hardware, I'm ready to go, but now I need to figure out if I should stick with XP Pro, or make the switch to XP Pro 64.

Hardware:
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H
RAM: 3x2GB DDR2 PC6400
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 6000+

I already know about the physical memory limitation of the 32-bit OSes (such as with XP Pro). My question is targeted on CPU performance.

Because XP Pro is 32-bit but my CPU can run in 32 and 64 bit mode, I'm wondering how much of an improvement I would see making the jump to XP Pro 64. For instance is a 64-bit OS on a 64-bit CPU twice as fast as a 32-bit OS running on a 64-bit CPU? Ten times as fast? An additional one-tenth as fast? An additional one-one-hundredth as fast? (these are just obscure figures I'm throwing out to let you know what I'm wondering )

I'm just looking for a quick understanding so I can figure out if I should *wait* till I get XP 64 to rebuild the system, or should I rebuild with the regular XP Pro since the difference in performance isn't *that* significant, and simply load on XP Pro 64 (clean install) when the time is convenient?

I hope my question hasn't gotten garbled in my haste. Thanks for anyone's thoughts and opinions on this.

PS. the graphical production comp that I'm working on right now is a 3400+ on XP Pro and it doesn't have the juice to keep up with the sort of work that needs to be done with it. I'm in the middle of a big project, so that's why I'm in a time crunch

PPS. The main program I'm using for this computer is Photoshop CS2, which in and of itself is also a 32-bit application. Not sure if that makes a difference for the answer I'm after.

 

[Old Thrashbarg]

You won't notice a performance difference between the two... it's within a few percentage points either way, depending on what application you're using and how that particular application is optimised. I couldn't find any measurable difference in Photoshop.

I've had no troubles with XP x64 except for the difficulty in finding drivers (contrary to popular opinion, they do exist for most hardware, but you often have to do some searching to find them). Still, though, if you don't already have a copy, there's really no compelling reason to get it, unless you really want the geek cred.

 

[Toasty_Squirrel]

Awesome, that's the info I was looking for Trashbarg . I've got another question on the matter, but I'll have to get to that later, right now I have a more pressing issue/emergency as I think my install has just totally gone to hell and I'm concerned for my data