some good advice here, but unless you processing large video or sound files 64-bit OS may be overkill. 4gb of ram is more than enough on a 32-bit OS (32-bit OS will not recognize ram over 4gb, it can't allocate the additional memory do to it's architecture). and as mention not all hardware / software is 64-bit compatible (although most vendors have patches that can be applied to make it so, just check first)
my box is a few years old, and i process large sound files just fine:
pentium quad core
4gb ram
nvidia vid card (1gb)
1tb hd
1tb exeternal hd for backup
xp sp3
i build / mod my own box; i was considering a substantial upgrade the winter (new chassis, cpu, gpu, soundcard, OS), but it's working so smoothly and does everything i need, so i may just replace the gpu and soundcard.
good luck!
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