is windows 7 64 bit really better than 32 bit ?

Yes the difference comes with what processor you are running if you have a Dual or more core processor then having a 64bit means even for 32 bit designed programs which their aren't that many that don't rely on windows to communicate to the processor for it so that doesn't really matter. What does matter is do you want windows to use all of your cores or just one? If you want all of them which could be up to 8 and well guess what you need to have 64bit Windows or you will only be using one core. So it is your choice but 64 bit also means that your programs will be spread over all the cores so better multi tasking.

64 bit actually means hyper-threading capability. By wich your processor can process two seperate strands of daa at the same time. But its true that there would not be much performance difference noticed unless you are running some heavy applications and also they must be 64bit applications that support and allow hyper threading. Just because a windows is a 64bit operating system it is not necessary that the software runds faster in the computer.