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The 64bit truth
Not in any way does 64bit in itself add performance over 32bit. Only if your memory requirements go beyond the limit (3-4GB) of a 32bit system you MAY notice less lagging when the OS no longer swaps memory to and from disk. The ONLY difference between running an application in 32 or 64 bit mode is in how much memory it will be able to address, and that in itself means nothing to performance. Very very few applications needs that much anyway, though your 64bit OS may benefit, especially if you bog it up with a lot of simultaneously processing applications like developers do. Some other stuff like data encryption, processing large media files (editing HD-videos or raw photos) or running the latest games that use very large textures may see some improvements. But here we talk about either very heavy loads or no gain.
But to say that "Any program natively 64bit will likely work better" or "...most of the x64 variants of working programs I use are faster" is simply not true. End users often think so because they get a brand new 64bit system that is faster for so many other reasons, like new hardware or a fresh OS install. It may also be so in a few cases that a certain software is re-written for the 64 bit version but not yet for the 32 bit version and therefore faster since it is newer, but this would be rare.
One actual drawback with 64bit is that it uses more memory for the same amount of data (not double!) which loads the caches more and means you want more RAM and bigger cache vs 32bit.
All that aside, I see no reason to avoid 64 bit as long as you get 6GB RAM or more, stay away from CPUs with tiny caches and are able to make some work-around decisions, like using other software than you are used to. But when the coming winter is over I would guess all the issues with software support should be history.
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