Win XP 64 bit and Upgrade questions

I am looking to upgrade my current pc. I game (WoW, AoC, LotRO) and I also model and animate with 3ds Max 2009. (as well as other programs such as macromedia dreamweaver and adobe photoshop, corel draw, corel paint) As the programs get more intensive, my current system just doesn't have the juice it used too. I now see lag in WoW (which as many know is a low end spectrum game) and Im running into alot of 3ds elements i can no longer render, such as certain lighting and shadow mapping.

I want to hold off building a new system until after i graduate next year, but I need something a bit better now.

Currently I have:
AMD Athlon 64 3200
ASROCK 939 Dual-Sata2
2 gb ram
nVidia 7600 512 mb pciE
Win xp Pro 32 bit
Netgear ethernet adapter and Linksys wire router

I will be getting the AM2 CPU Board to take advantage of the Asrocks future cpu slot and replacing my Athlon with an AM2 Brisbane 2.7 ghz. The cpu board will also increase my allowed ram to 8gb. I also want to upgrade to a gforce 9500 GT 1 gb VC. I don't have the pciE 2.0, so i think this card will be the most bang for the buck.

naturally the idea of utilizing the full capabilities of my dual core plus a full 8g of ram is sweet, and I can do it for relatively cheap. However, to do that I need a 64 bit OS...

I am not thrilled with the idea of Vista. I want to go XP if at all possible.

However, I am reading alot of issues with drivers, software (such as Adobe FLash etc) and the biggest issue i have read about is the wireless adapters. I have three computers in the house, none of which are in close enough range to switch back to wired (dsl), nor does the idea of wired thrill me..

Would it be better to just drop down to 4gb of ram and stick with win 32 until Im ready to build a new (and hopefully very powerful) system next year?