Microsoft Corp. today announced the beta availability of a native 64-bit version of its Windows® XP operating system designed to support 64-Bit Extended Systems, including platforms based on AMD64 technology from AMD. Microsoft made the announcement at AMDs launch of the AMD Athlon (TM) 64 processor in San Francisco. The updated 64-bit operating system, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems, which will run natively on AMD Athlon 64 processor-powered desktops and AMD Opteron (TM) processor-powered workstations, provides the superior performance needed by consumers and business customers for the next generation of high-performance desktop computing, including gaming, digital content creation and video editing.

A key benefit of the updated operating system is the Microsoft® Windows on Windows 64 (WOW64) technology, which will enable customers who currently have Windows XP-compatible 32-bit applications to run those applications on the 64-bit operating system. The WOW64 architecture takes advantage of the AMD64 architecture to enable compatibility with 32-bit applications without a loss of performance in nearly all cases, helping protect customers current and future technology investments.

Read the entire press release at Microsoft.