32 & 64 bit memory
 

Back with another what's it question.
I've been looking at mobo's and have seen under the specs "max memory supported" 4GB-32bit, 8GB-64 bit. I can't find referance to either when looking at the memory sticks themselves. what makes one a 32 bit and the other a 64 bit?

They mean by the amount of memory the OS will read.

sounds easy enough, next quetion...... how much will XP Home SP/2 (version 2002) handle? Will it be stated some where in properties?

My guess is it would depend if your running XP32 or XP64 bit. Not sure thats how it works tho, but as TK states thats what I'm picking up.

You can only address 4GB under a 32 bit OS, simply because there aren't any more addresses.
64 bit addressing solves this issue. The memory sticks themselves don't matter here.

Under 32-bit Windows, isnt only 3GB read?

3.2 or something. Though when getting into such details I feel like adding that there is such a thing like PAE and eventually the thread gets really confusing. Lets just stick to 32bit addressing can't go past 4GB.

PAE explained.
only intel can benefit from pae.
let's leave it at that.