MiKTeX and proTeXt ⇒ MiKTeX 2.7 on Vista x64 (either native or WOW64)

[prose]

Hello, all:

Two (not-so-)quick questions that have had me Googling until I was blue in the face:

(1) Is there an "official" precompiled MiKTeX 2.7 distribution for x64? (This is for a company computer, and I have to show that anything I install was downloaded directly from an "official" source... yeah, I know.)

(2) How have your experiences been running MiKTeX 2.7 on Windows Vista x64? This goes for the regular 32-bit installation under WOW64, as well as for any hypothetical 64-bit distribution. If any of you have run it under WOW64, how was performance---particularly of xelatex? This is for a laptop that lacks a workstation's horsepower.

These questions are kind of urgent for me; I need to decide between 32-bit and 64-bit Vista, and I must have my computer order in by Monday morning. Once I choose, there is no changing my mind. I'd really like to use a full 4GB of RAM and some other features; but MiKTeX is the #1 most-important app I use (yes, really!), and if I have trouble getting it running, or if performance is absolutely terrible under WOW64, I am in for some serious headaches.

No, I can't use MiKTeX 2.5. I am hooked on 2.7, and have started heavily using xetex features.

I'd try compiling it myself from "official" sources, but I don't have time right now to figure it out, which would be quite difficult because I am not really a programmer. (I just play one on the Internet.)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

prose

P.S.---Apologies if this is in a FAQ somewhere, but has anybody considered making a BBcode plugin that would translate \emph{} to the appropriate BBcode, --- to a U+2014 em-dash, and so forth? ;-)