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Because my laptop has 4Gb and my XP only supports 3Gb and I don't know if when I installed Vista, my laptop runs better. Another thing is the security and the battery life.
I can't imagine that the battery life would be too different. By security, if you mean that Vista is more secure than XP, I would say that there isn't much difference between XP SP3 and Vista SP1--they're very similar in their security features--or lack thereof. So, the only likely reason to attempt this would be to take advantage of all 4gb of RAM, and that probably isn't going to make much of a difference either.
So, back to your question...is it a good idea to update from 32-bit XP to 64-bit Vista? I'd say it isn't worth the hassle in this particular case, unless you enjoy projects and just need something to do or want to familiarize yourself with the ups and downs of running a 64 bit OS at this point in time. In other words, it would be a fun project, but it probably won't make any significant differences in your performance, battery life, or security.
You also should look into drivers. Are all your hardware devices supported with 64bit drivers? Also most users need to install 64bit with 2gigs of ram then install the rest.
I installed 64 bit Home Premium with 8 GB of ram on my custom desktop and never had a problem. Also, the 64 bit version of Vista does include a full 32 bit emulator, so as long as you can find a driver that is "Vista" compatible regardless of whether it is 32 or 64 bit, you are good to go should you want to update. I personally have yet to run into any major issue with Vista. The only disadvantage of the 64 bit I have really decided so far is the fact that the O.S. is very big with all the features and the 32 bit emulator. That is easier to fix, however, if you use Vlite to remove useless features like "touch screen/tablet". Again, it would just really come down to your personal preference.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
