You'll have a MUCH easier time implimenting an AMD, because it'll run 32 ot 64 bit code equally well right out of the box. Much like the 32 bit systems, there won't be much difference other than that once you ignore the marketing fluff.
I'd advise against RH. If you need paid support, look at Suse. If not, Gentoo rules, and more and more people on this list are using it.
Do you know someone that has Gentoo running a 64 bit Kernel? We had a customer try to get it to work but couldn't quite get it working. 32bit fine but not 64. I would really advise against running Gentoo unless you are a very capable user who knows his way around setting up a linux system from scratch.
The knock on RedHat's Preview version (GinGin64) was that it was missing (the 32bit compiler and libs). Most HPC guys we deal with don't care if there's no 32bit gcc support because for their 32bit code they get much better performance from the Intel Compilers (upto 40% in some cases using SSE2 extensions) And yes the Opteron will work with the Intel Compiler because it's pretty much fully P4 compatible.
To RedHat's credit the beta for Enterprise 3.0 (Taroon) has included the 32bit gcc and libs and is as good as anything else out there. We have used the SuSE version and well usable, really should not have been a release version (I am sure some of the updates since the release have probably fixed number issues that we saw). Mandrake is alright but their are some issues as well. RedHat is planning on releasing an official RedHat version (Enterprise 3.0) in September. Of course until the official release RedHat won't be supporting the Opteron with updates and such. (Update packages maybe available but you would need to know were to look).
regards, -- Mark Lane, CET mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Hard Data Ltd. http://www.harddata.com T: 01-780-456-9771 F: 01-780-456-9772 11060 - 166 Avenue Edmonton, AB, Canada, T5X 1Y3 --> Ask me about our Excellent 1U Systems! <--
