Yeah, it is pretty much useless unless he plans on using 4GB or more RAM.
A common misconception is that 64-bit architectures are no better than 32-bit architectures unless the computer has more than 4 GB of memory. This is not entirely true:
Some operating systems reserve portions of process address space for OS use, effectively reducing the total address space available for mapping memory for user programs. For instance, Windows XP DLLs and userland OS components are mapped into each process's address space, leaving only 2 to 3.8 GB (depending on the settings) address space available, even if the computer has 4 GiB of RAM. This restriction is not present in 64-bit Windows.
Memory mapping of files is becoming less useful with 32-bit architectures, especially with the introduction of relatively cheap recordable DVD technology. A 4 GB file is no longer uncommon, and such large files cannot be memory mapped easily to 32-bit architectures; only a region of the file can be mapped into the address space, and to access such a file by memory mapping, those regions will have to be mapped into and out of the address space as needed. This is an issue, as memory mapping remains one of the most efficient disk-to-memory methods, when properly implemented by the OS.
-Granted we are not talking to much about Windows XP because as most people here I hate Windows...however I have it loaded on my MacBook Pro as I have to have it for work.....plus I found very interesting the second part about the memory mapping of over 4GB.....as it isn't uncommon to find a video file over 4GB on my computer or other Mac users as we usually fancy ourself as working a lot with multimedia....