Windows XP 64bit based on AMD design?!

[Converseahorse]

Hello boys and girls.
I've had my head in the sand for a while so forgive please if the following is a bit of a no brainer:
Am I to understand that the current release is for Intel users and the upcomming release is for the AMD crowd?
A few months back I went with a system sporting the AMD64, boy was I peeved when I saw the 64FX for it is DV I be mostly dealing with! Anyhow I took a gamble and figured the support would proliferate fairly rapidly, perhaps a year or so. The flip side of that was to go for a cheaper (32bit) solution for now and upgrade in 2-3yrs, getting a faster chip for even money. Ever since I've been nail biting wondering if I had made the right move. Anyone got an idea of a final release date; are we talking Summer '04 or '06!?
Also two things now concern me.
a) will the upgrade only be availible from an OEM
&
b) will the upgrade be an upgrade? That is to say as with the intel version will it only be available as a 'Full'' version?

Oh by the by my two cent (€ ) on AMD:
I had a 8088, a 186 (yes, one of the few), 286, 386 and then I woke up to the AMD K6 333...never looked back. I've used other Intel systems up to 3.2Ghz and well to put it mathematically AMD > Intel


Down with x86!!

 

[AWS]

The upgrade will be available to anyone. You can download the public beta of XP 64. Check out MS site.
There will be only one version of XP x86/64. Intel will have to follow AMD standards or be without an OS if they introduce something different.
There is already a 64bit XP, but, it is for the Intel Itanium. That is a true 64bit processor, not based on x86.
Not to worry your system will not become obsolete when the giant releases their x86/64 chip.

The final release will be sometime this year. My bet is you'll see XP x86/64 be released shortly after Intel releases their chip which will be second quarter this year.
Longhorn is the OS for 2006.