I recently put together a new desktop machine for my home network environment, with the intention of installing the 64-bit version of SQL Server 2005.  Having not looked at the 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP in a while, I did a bit of research first to make sure all the 64-bit drivers were readily available.  I chose the Asus A8R-MVP motherboard (and an AMD64 dual-core processor) based on the availability of 64-bit drivers, plus the fact that this motherboard supports the newest, fastest SATA II hard drives ...

After completing the install, I was not disappointed in my choice.  I was able to install the operating system without having to download any additional drivers, and everything worked perfectly.  No problems with RAID drivers, network drivers, or audio drivers (although I admin I didn't plug in any speakers).  The 64-bit edition of SQL Server 2005 installed without incident as well ...

If you are looking to install the 64-bit version of either Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP on your hardware, here are two things to keep in mind:

1.  Make sure all the 64-bit drivers required for hard drives, network cards, sound cards, USB, Firewire, etc. are available for your hardware and for the operating system you choose ...

2.  Make sure you have all the software utilities that you need.  Low-level utilities that we've all become dependent on, such as Norton AntiVirus, certain DVD-burning software packages, etc. require you to obtain 64-bit versions of the software as the 32-bit versions will not work ...