I am in need of a new box and some have suggested I go with the AMD 64 bit board and CPU and be ahead of the game for a bit. If indeed I go this direction which distro will work with this 64 bit. Also any suggesstions as to what barebones box to get

I am not sure what your needs are but if you are planning on running Database or ERP (like SAP) Applicationst on a 64 bit platform than I would recommend SLES 8 or 9. Sun Microsystems has been releasing some excellent performance benchmarks on their v40z systems running the AMD Opteron 800 series. I work with SAP software and their benchmarks really impressed me. I have also installed and run Oracle 9i and SAP on both SLES 8 and 9 and both OS's are very easy to administer and run rock solid.
Here's the link for the sun benchmark: http://www50.sap.com/benchmark/pdf/cert4404.pdf

Hope this helps

Regards,
Dominic Uliano

I am thinking of doing the same, but I plan to build the box myself. I don't know if Suse 9.2 is optimised for Athlon 64, if not, try Mandrake, they have just released a beta of their 64 bit version of Mandrake 10.1.

9.1 was optimized for Athlon 64. So, I assume 9.2 will be. I loaded it (along with Fedora 64) and really didn't find they made noticeable difference in speed for me. But, then again, I use my computer mostly for email, surfing and spreadsheets - nothing more complicated. So, perhaps 64 is wasted on me.

In the end, I switched back to the 32 bit version, as it was too much of a hassle to integrate things like xine, flash and java in to the 64bit-based OS browsers.

I find this amusing that you're asking in the SuSE forum...

If I remember correctly, didn't SuSE originally do the first 64 bit Linux OS, with all others basing their version off of it?

Perhaps, but it's still amusing to ask "Which distribution does XYZ the best?" in one distro's forum.

I bought an "almost barebones" system from Monarch Computer, and am also a newbie. Basically, I had them put all the hardware together, but I configured the system. I also ordered no software. (I have a valid XP license from work, and I wanted to try Linux.) On Thursday, I installed Suse 9.1 Pro.

The only problem I had with the system I got, was that despite asking if the modem was a winmodem, I got a software modem. I also did not realize that ATI was not the way to go for my video. That was not Monarch's fault; they had no way of knowing what operating system I was using. (If I was using the 32 bit operating system, I could find drivers both for my card and for my modem.)

I had no trouble installing Suse, and it seems to be working pretty well. (In fact, I accidentally popped the DVD in upside down, and it warned me that I was about to install a 32 bit OS on a 64 bit machine.) I have the DvD working, and pretty much everything else, except for gimp. I seem to have a problem opening jpegs with gimp. I have seen this in a few threads. It always references Suse, and I have never seen a fix. However, I suspect it is just a conflict with installed packages, so I'm working on a solution. (It is a problem not being able to do auto updates without a modem.)

Everything seems to run so blazingly fast that sometimes screw up just because things happen to fast. I am too used to windows, I guess.

I've used Fedora Core 3 test 1 64 bits edition for a while. It runs quite smooth, tough I had some problems with compiling stuff. Otherwise everything went just fine out of the box.

SuSE 9.1 loads as 32 bit not as the package says 64 bit for amd64.

I have reverted back to Mandrake 10. amd 64 bit version, that is until I get info from someone that
the 9.2 really does load as a 64 bit.

However, I did find on the Asrock 64 bit version motherboard and sata drive SuSE was the only operating system that would install albeit as 32 bit software.

Thanks for all the info I have received lots of info and lots to think about. I think for myself you have answered all the questions