(but nor do i)
i purchased a nice cheap dell laptop its an inspiron 1525 i paied 40 bucks for it cause i just happened to have my own modified and upgraded one with a smashed screen. So the one i bought i swapped keyboards n what not and it works great, installed slack13 no problem boots up (as long as i use huge.s) hugesmp.s wont startx after install. soo i figured i always wanted to try gentoo, i download all the versions and burnem up. i used the 2008 live cd version. boots up great in live mode with xfce. i install (correctly) mainly just defaults. then remove the cd and reboot. the boot up (as things load the font on the screen as it boots is blurred and over writing then x never starts. i dont recall the errors, but maybe, just maybe someone else got this problem and knows. thank you in advance (= kevin

You build gentoo according to the hardware specifications, not to the assembler's specification.
Build the amd64/x86_64.
Don't install a display manager.
Build X after you install a base system.
Add the desktop gui later, then the sound , then graphics drivers and what not.
This is the way I build Debian, NetBSD, FreeBSD, and whatever else I am using.

Slackware has 64bit support now. You shouldn't need x86 for anything on Linux, there's ia32 compat and libs you can install.

You should try the latest SystemRescueCD or the 10.0 Minimal CD from Gentoo to install your box.

I know i was just excited when i saw a gentoo option in easy mode. I havent been using *nix for too long but i guess i could attempt a minimal install then build off that ot would be a great learning experience. Although debian will always be my favirote. Ill give it a shot and get back if i have any problems.