While I had very few early teething issues with Vista Ultimate x86, and none with Vista Home Premium x64, Win 7 is by far the best OS Microsoft has ever done... bar none. Not only is is faster, both to install and run, it is very reliable and seamless to use.
I currently run Win 7 Home premium x64 and loving it. The installation/set-up was painless and it found all my device drivers, so there were no compatability issues whatsoever and everything worked as it should from word go. However, what I'm liking most is the ease of use and the additional options (folder, personalisation, etc) that were missing in Vista.... I feel as though I have more control now, particularly as the UAC has become more user friendly.
Yup, I rate Win 7 12 out of 10. 
Has anyone installed and used 7 on an x86 system? Field Value
CPU Type AMD Athlon XP, 2200 MHz (11 x 200) 3200+
Would need 32 bit I assume.
Hey Ed. 
While your machine may be a little underpowered by today's standards (quad cores and etc), Win 7 is nowhere near as bloated as Vista and it requires fewer resources, so yes, your PC would be capable of running Win 7, but how well would depend on having a decent video card the amount of RAM you have... 2gb would be the minimum, I expect.
Microsoft realises that it made mistakes with Vista, in particular its hardware requirements, so Win 7 was slimmed down and designed to run on lesser machines. I ran the Win7 RC on an Intel P4 machine with 2gb RAM and a Nvidia 7800GT without issue and at respectable speeds, though understandably not as fast as my Athlon quad core with 8gb ram and a 9800GT
Ideally, a hardware upgrade or new PC would be better, but obviously when the budget doesn't allow for this you have to make the best of what you've got.... and I'm pretty sure you'd be OK with Win 7 x86 on that machine if you have 2 gb RAM and a decent video card. To remove all doubt, the best way to see if your PC will run Win 7 is to use this tool
