Intel Core 2 Quad… Which version of Linux do I have to install?

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By the way, Intel64 is implemented in the following processors:

* Intel NetBurst microarchitecture

o Intel Xeon (some models since “Nocona”)
o Intel Celeron D (some models since “Prescott”)
o Intel Pentium 4 (some models since “Prescott”)
o Intel Pentium D
o Intel Pentium Extreme Edition

* Intel Core microarchitecture

o Intel Xeon (all models since “Woodcrest”)
o Intel Core 2 (Including Mobile processors since “Merom”)
o Intel Pentium Dual Core (E2140, E2160, E2180, E2200, E2220, E5200, T2310, T2330, T2370, and T2390)
o Intel Celeron (Celeron 4×0; Celeron M 5xx)

* Intel Atom microarchitecture

o Intel Atom 200 series (not to be confused with the N200 series, widely used in netbooks)
o Intel Atom 300 series

* Intel Nehalem microarchitecture

o Intel Core i5
o Intel Core i7

 

(Info from the wikipedia)

Of course I could have tried with 32 bits. As far as I know, when the “battle” between 64 and 32 bits for desktops started, AMD decided to sneak the more powerful architecture the less painfully as possible doing 64-bits processors able to work on 32-bits as well. Intel, later on, did the same with their EM64T (a.k.a. Intel64…). This processors can run 32-bits programs, but you would be loosing performance!

Being more precise, the real name for that architecture is x86-64, which was originally designed by AMD and then renamed to amd64. Both amd64 and EM64T “are” x86-64, but for the mayority of the distributions I’ve seen, the “amd64” tag is the one chosen to name it.