I have just installed FC3 - no problems so far (i.e., it boots, and I can access the internet).

I'm running up2date, and the only kernel update available is an i686 architecture...but the DVD I downloaded and installed is i386. Does this matter? I'm under the impression that i686 implies optimization for a 64 bit processor (I'm sure I could be wrong about that), but I'm running a P4 that is 32 bit. None of the other updates show i686 architecture, and I don't see any way to update to an i386 version of the kernel using the up2date utility. Basically, I just want to know if I can go ahead with this update without running into issues later on. I tried FC1 a while back, and the i686 kernel seemed to work, but I didn't have the time to fully switch over to linux at the that time.

Any recommendations/advice?

No! i686 is for PII,PIII,P4
i386 is the common for all PC's.
I don't thing you'll have a problem.

The distros have different CD's for the 64 bit processors.

Cool. The updated kernel works fine - as it should, of course. Thanks for clarifying that for me.