Vista 64-bit only runs on 64-bit Processors. Most recent CPUs are 64bit, but specifically all Intel Pentium D, Xeon, Core 2 and Extreme Edition CPUs or newer, and all AMD Turion, Opteron, and Athlon64 or newer support 64-bit computing. Refer to this CPU List for more details. If your CPU is not 64-bit capable then you cannot install or use Vista 64-bit. Vista 64-bit requires that all device drivers be designed specifically for 64-bit and that they be signed.Vista 64-bit cannot use 32-bit drivers.
And can only use unsigned drivers with a tedious workaround at each bootup. This can mean that some older or less popular hardware may never receive 64bit signed drivers, because of the extra costs to the hardware manufacturer of development and having them signed. Vista 64bit can use more than 4GB of RAM efficiently, as the 4GB RAM limit is a technical limitation of the 32bit architecture. Vista 64bit does not support 16-bit programs, and while it can use all 32bit programs, there are usuallyno performance benefits when doing so. Only programs designed specifically for 64bit computing will have improved performance under Vista 64-bit.