I have always encouraged people to use a 64 bit operating system for Windows or Linux. With Windows, a 32 bit computer limits your memory to about 3.5 Gigs. Linux does not have this limitation and can use 100 percent of your memory.
Recently, I needed to install a scanner driver that required a 32 bit version of Linux. I used a 7 year old computer to install the latest Linux Mint Cinnamon version 19.2. The memory is about 8 Gigs. The operating system needed a 60 Gigabyte drive.
I’ve used the computer for a week now and I can say that in every case it performs the same as a 64 bit computer. Dual core is better, but it would still work on a single core processor. I went to Mint because Ubuntu no longer makes a 32 bit version. Since you can buy a 120 Gig SSD drive for less than 25 dollars, this type of experimentation is very easy.
