Should I run the 64 or 32 bit OS?
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I didn't see it mentioned, but the question should be, do you plan to add any more memory to this system?
If yes, go with 64 bit, as it will be ready to use the extra memory beyond 4 GB.
If no, then there's no point in going with 64 bit. 32 bit would be perfectly fine.
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When dealing with old computers 32-bit is almost one-way road!
I'd call it more a dead-end road. A one-way road can lead to somewhere, just no turning back before getting there.
I have a MacBook Pro that I got in mid-2010 set up as 32-bit, came with Snow Leopard. I Upgraded to Mountain Lion and discovered I could change it to 64-bit in its settings without needing to do a clean install, has not been a problem since.
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Mac OS and Linux are hybrid 64-bit operating systems. They can also accept 32-bit drivers, that's why you can just upgrade to 64-bit without a clean-install. Unfortunately this is not the case with Windows. To go from 32-bit to 64-bit you must clean-install, 32-bit drivers are incompatible with 64-bit Windows.
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Unless it is a very old computer or laptop that you cannot find 64 bit drivers for, I'd use 64 bit. Or if you have some really old software that somehow is incompatible.
I personally started using Windows 64 bit since Vista came out. With the exception of an ASUS netbook that was limited to 32 bit and had only 2GB of RAM. Every system I've purchased since then has been 64 bit compatible, and I've never had a device that didn't have 64 bit driver support. Problems finding 64 bit driver versions have pretty much disappeared since Windows 7.
Again, unless it is a very old PC or an old laptop that has no manufacturer support, I'd go with 64 bit. Even if you only think you will add more RAM to the system. There are more reasons to run 64 bit then just memory usage.
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You should consider any old peripheral as well. If you have any old printer, scanner, sound card, TV tuner, whatever might not have 64-bit drivers, stick with 32-bit. I would make a search to make sure I find drivers for everything before I install 64-bit to anything old. I had an old analog Pinnacle PCTV tuner card (BT878 chipset) and I had hard time locating a third-party BT8x8 64-bit driver, sign it and install it. And of course since this was a custom driver, Pinnacle's own TV application (Pinnacle Vision) didn't work and I had to find another solution. Big trouble! So unless you have or think of adding more than 4GB RAM, stick with 32-bit!
I would try 64-bit as a dual-boot and adopt it after I am 100% sure I have no issues.
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I had an old Dell with the same cure duo quad core processor at 2.4 ghz.. It originally had Vista 32-bit w/ 2 GB RAM. I upgraded to 4 GB RAM and ran 64bit Windows 7 successfully. Actually updated it to win 10 and the system ran well for about 3 months until the CPU and video card finally died.
With only 3 GB RAM, I would probably stick with 32-bit, but if you want to add more RAM, then 64-bit should be fine.
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As said before, I would first make 100% sure I can find 64-bit drivers. Or I would try 64-bit as a dual-boot to see if I have any issues. Once I am confident it is OK, I would then keep 64-bit and delete the 32-bit version. That's the practice I used to do with new Windows versions. With Vista I dual-booted with XP until it was mature enough and problem-free to finally switch to Vista. Then I upgraded to 7, to 8 and now 10.
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