I just now about finished reinstalling all of my basic drivers and software after I decided to reinstall vista because I felt it was getting sluggish. it would take maybe 30 seconds longer than normal to boot up and there was a few second delay when i clicked on certain things.

Well I have been using Vista for about a year and a half completely with x64 version. The Retail copy I bought was for 32 bit, but I called Microsoft and they mailed me a DVD with the x64 because I had 4GB of RAM. So I had the 32 bit DVD all along I just never used it. 

Now, I expected that my desktop performance would increase(and it did) But I knew this is just because its fresh. But what I didn't expect was the HUGE performance gain I got in Fallout 3. It was perfectly playable before, going from 25-50 FPS depending on the area. I like my eye candy and I can't play this game without 4X Antialiasing. Anyway, I just lived with the low framerate since it isn't really a twitch game anyways. First thing I try once all of my drivers are loaded up is the rock solid 60 FPS. I had quicksaved on the top of a large hill and you can see for miles. I moved the mouse and was shocked at how smooth the view turned. I was really happy, but it got better. I found a super mutant and tried VATS. Wouldn't you know I was able to target him almost instantly. Before there was a couple of second pause between clicking the vats key and when you can choose which body part to shoot. Also, similarly, the pipboy screen opened up a lot snappier than before.

I don't know if this huge performance difference is just because of a fresh install of windows, or because of switching from 64bit back to 32 bit. It is interesting to me though. Its late now but I am eager to try my other games tomorrow.