i386 vs amd64

[mike miskulin]

About to build a replacement system for an older i386 setup.   A few
years ago I had tried the amd64 port on it and found it was frustrating
as things that just worked on i386 did not on amd64. IIRC ports were 
large annoyance too.

Now I have a new system with 8GB, etc,etc and wonder if I am best off to
stick with i386 and PAE or is the amd64 version finally on a par or
close enough that I would not likely have many issues like in the past?

Thanks for your thoughts/(recent) experiences.