Purchasing technology can be frustrating—the minute you buy something, the new version becomes available. We understand this frustration and have created a program in cooperation with our partners to help alleviate it.

The Windows XP Professional x64 Edition Technology Advancement Program enables customers who have purchased Windows XP Professional (32-bit) to exchange it for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. You will need to have an x64 processor (the AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron, Intel Pentium 4 with EM64T, or Intel Xeon with EM64T) to run the new software.

Note: Orders for the Technology Advancement Program must be placed by July 31, 2005.

Since many of our partners are taking part in this program, you should check with your PC manufacturer to see if they support the exchange on your x64 computer. If they support the program, your PC manufacturer will be able to provide you with a CD that includes all of the right drivers and software specific to your computer. If you built your PC yourself or have purchased it through a system builder, you can make the exchange through the link to the right. Cost for shipping and handling of upgrade is $12.00 USD for domestic shipments and $22.00 USD for International shipments plus any applicable taxes.

Source: BetaONE

I believe if you have a retail or OEM version, you may trade up for a 64-bit version of Windows XP with the Windows 2003 Server kernel. Has anyone tried out the new version yet? I'm waiting for Microsoft to send us our volume license package so I can try this out on my Athalon.

Oddly, it's not on the volume licensing downloads server yet, so, don't get too excited about your media package shipment. MSDN versions are everywhere, however.

I am considering doiung the free ($12 for shipping) upgrade since I have a 64 bit processor. But I am wary of switching and then finding out there are problems with the drivers and games. Has anyone tried this yet?

You won't gain any obvious benefits, at least until 64-bit versions of software are released. What you do gain is a securer system, because I believe the 64-bit version takes advantage of process-memory jailing.

So, I'm assuming you have to send them a legal disc to exchange? ;)

I have heard that many programs don't run on the 64-bit version of Windows and there is a lacking amount of drivers for it. Anyone know if this is true?

Also keep in mind that not all hardware or periphials have 64 bit drivers. The 32 bit ones will not work. Vid cards and sound cards will by and large have 64 bi drivers avalible, but if you use alot of different things beyond the basic stuff, you may well have issues. From what I have read(no first hand experiance with it here, waiting for either more software, or longhorn), 32 bit programs should(by and large) beable to run fine on a 64 bit OS