$ uname -a
Linux toby 4.13.0-39-generic #44~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Apr 5 16:43:55 UTC 2018 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux

Just getting into Linux. Have an older desktop that I assembled some time ago. PC is devoted to LM at this time with no other OS installed. Would like to know if my PC CPU etc qualifies for a 64 bit linux distro? Thank you very much! This is rather daunting to me at present. PW

Don't worry - if you try to boot a 64-bit install/live USB on 32-bit hardware, you'll get a message ....

But run this from a terminal - if you get nothing, you're 32-bit (lm here is "long mode")

$ grep -iwo lm /proc/cpuinfo
lm
lm

Ran this from terminal as suggested and enclosed is the result? Not sure what lm is suppose to mean - long mode? linux mint? live modern?. Thank you for the reply maybe you can enlighted this SC what I can/should run on this PC?

Getting "lm" back means you have effectively 2 64-bit cores. Long-mode(lm) means 64-bit in this context.
You might have 2 separate cores, or a single hiper-threaded core. Largely a semantic difference.

Hard to advise without more specs, but if you want to run Linux Mint, I'd suggest you go with the Mate desktop.

Thank you very much again ... I purchased LM 32 & 64 bit cinnamon Sylvia some time ago and installed the 32 bit to this desktop. After our discussion I am going to install & setup the 64 bit. If I had this information I probably would have purchased the Mate as you suggested.

Sort of a learning experience for me. Appreciate your comments & suggestions you're spot on. Now that I know that the cpu in this Desktop is 64 bit capable I will have to consider using the 64 bit linux.

At this time I have no experience or knowledge using USB or the XFburn so I've purchased the DVD Distros. Pleasant surprise.

Kindest regards ... PW