Windows 7: Which is better win7 32 bit or 64 bit?

Does the 64 bit version of windows 7 use more resources than the 32 bit, and if it does will this effect my gaming?

Perhaps a bit, but 64-bit allows you to use more RAM, whereas 32-bit max's out at 4GB. Adding more RAM will definitely affect your gaming, for the better.

From my observations with a 32-bit XP installation and 64-bit Vista and 7; the newer versions take up roughly double the memory for 64-bit versions (but again, this was compared to 32-bit XP).

As bbearren says, 64-bit machines are able to take more memory, which helps not only just to run the OS itself, but in some newer games such as Skyrim.

There are several benefits of going to Windows 7 64-bit:

• With 32-bit Windows, you can use a maximum of 4GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 7 runs very fast with 4GB and you can upgrade your RAM to 8 or 16 GB later, making your system future-proof.
• A 32-bit OS can theoretically use up to 4 GB of RAM, but 32-bit versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7 see a maximum of 3.12 GB. With 64-bit Windows 7, you can use the full 4GB RAM.