Installing on Windows XP Pro 64bit

[youngros]

Having done a system build for a Windows7 machine I decided to buy a new HDD for an old machine reinstall XP 64bit on it and then VirtualBox and finally Ubuntu and then the trouble started.
I burned a couple of discs, all had the files on booted from the downloaded image and if I managed to get it to install it switched the whole PC off and restarted. The last attempt switched off before install.
I tried Kubuntu and that ran for a day and then fixed on Kubuntu screen. Cleaned everything off and reinstalled but it won't work again. So why did it work once?
Does Ubuntu not like 64 bit, or is something else going on?

Specs 64bit XP, 32 bit chip, Geforce 6200 TurboCache 1GB memory

[SnickerSnack]

Having done a system build for a Windows7 machine I decided to buy a new HDD for an old machine reinstall XP 64bit on it and then VirtualBox and finally Ubuntu and then the trouble started.
I burned a couple of discs, all had the files on booted from the downloaded image and if I managed to get it to install it switched the whole PC off and restarted. The last attempt switched off before install.
I tried Kubuntu and that ran for a day and then fixed on Kubuntu screen. Cleaned everything off and reinstalled but it won't work again. So why did it work once?
Does Ubuntu not like 64 bit, or is something else going on?

Specs 64bit XP, 32 bit chip, Geforce 6200 TurboCache 1GB memory

So, you installed XP 64 bit on a machine with a 32 bit processor? If that's even possible, it's a pretty obvious source of problems. Did you try to install 64 bit or 32 bit linux?

[Sef]

Specs 64bit XP, 32 bit chip....

That is impossible. A 64-bit os cannot be installed on oa 32-bit chip. Either you have a 32-bit os with a 32-bit chip, a 64-bit os with a 64-bit chip, or a 32-bit os with a 64-bit chip.

[youngros]

It's an Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.00 GHz (2CPUs). 3.2Ghz that is what I get from running dxdiag

It wasn't my choice of OS but was what got installed and four years ago I knew a lot less than I do now,need to when not in the UK and dealing with a language barrier. (Portuguese)

Pretty much everything has run OK, some software wouldn't run especially free AV.

I was told that the machine would just run as 64bit.

I installed the 32bit version of Linux.

[dino99]

mini howto: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9216264&postcount=14