'smallest/oldest' system I have Win 7 [Pro - 32bit] on is a P4 1.6 with 1gig of ram.....runs fine...

There ya go, Ed, You should be fine with Win 7 and that rig of yours.

My P4 is a 2.8ghz and Win 7 ran well, so your 2.2 should fly if Jafo's 1.6 runs fine.

Yes, Windows 7 is perfect but there is a very bad news for me (and many other gamers) is DirectX 11 which puts an end to all of my old games using DirectX 9. Now, I get back to Windows XP or maybe, I should have a dual boot for Windows XP and Windows 7   .

Why is that?

I'm trying to work out which is my oldest game installed...looks like it'll be GrandPrix 4 .....2002

System requirements....

The following is a description of the minimum system requirements for Grand Prix 4. If your system does not meet or exceed these requirements, then the game will run incorrectly, or not at all.

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
Pentium2 400MHz or equivalent
64Mb RAM
videocard 16Mb DirectX 8.1 compatible
soundcard DirectX 8.1 compatible
4X CD Rom drive
500 Mb Hard Drive Space
DirectX 8.1 (supplied with the game)

BTW...

With everything maxed....getting 60fps ...whilst running 2 Virtual Machines [Win 7 Ultimate and Vista Ultimate], and several other proggies....

I have an old DELL notebook (Inspiron 6000 1.6GHz Centrino with 2GB RAM and an 80GB HD) that I had "upgraded" from XP Pro to Vista Business about a year ago.  Boy did I live to regret that....   Of course that same notebook is now happily running Win 7 Pro and just FLYING along!

FYI....I just changed all of my gaming rigs from XP Pro x64 (best most solid gaming OS evah!!!) to Win 7 Pro........thanks to my new favourite game "Shattered Horizon" (www.shatteredhorizon.com) a ZERO-G FPS requiring DX10 for its super awesome graphics!     So far, so good......even my gaming rigs aren't complaining about Win 7 so that says a lot!

the Monk

Windows 7 is too beautiful to me, I cant beleive this is my new operating system its like i bought a new computer all together! Every driver was found and there was no hassle with any of the xp programs I had.

My Windows 7 experience has come in the form of http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220605&Tpk=g51j One expensive upgrade but oh so worth it.

Runs beautifully on my netbook.  Snappy and shiny.

Maybe next year i'll upgrade. I hear nothing but positive reviews about 7.

Have been runnin 64-bit win 7 for two weeks now coming from 32-bit vista. Not only it's more stable and faster it is more secure! I scan both of my adware programs every two days and ZERO malwares found most of the time. That was not the case with Vista. Good job microsoft, windows 7 is not just pretty it is fast, secure, and makes life easier!

I tried to upgrade from XP to Win 7 last weekend. Everything worked great, fast install, found drivers right off the bat. One major problem though, couldn't get my USB wireless network card to work. Looked up online, found out netgear hasn't release drivers and the Vista drivers don't work. Went out and bought a new linksys that I was told should work, installed and no luck. After some research found out this also doesn't work. I finally gave up and reinstalled XP.

So, anybody have any luck getting a USB wireless network card to work with the 64 bit version of Win7? I really want to upgrade but the wireless card is a necessity.

I am running Win 7 Home Premium x64 and my Netgear USB drivers were found/installed during the initial OS installation/setup... 2Wire 2701 HGV-W router.  I was connected to the net and downloading Windows Updates at first proper boot, so I'm not sure why yours would not have done so... a possible installation glitch, perhaps? 

I'm not that knowledgeable or experienced with wireless networking, but it may help to try again while connected by ethernet cable, so that Windows Update can search for and install the necessary drivers.  Just a thought!

The missus also upgraded to Win 7 x64 on a very similar machine and was connected straight away also... so I'm guessing mine was no fluke.

It's the same here.  LOVE Windows 7!  It's rock solid, stable, clean, polished and works right out of the box.  Windows 7 is awesome.  I hope we get a new version of the Boot software soon though.  I really like that program.  WB 7 and Skin Studio 7 work beautifully and I've had fun playing around with both of them.  Logon Studio works well too.  I'm glad I ordered Windows 7 while it was half price.  That was a great deal but I would gladly have paid full price for it.  It's truly worth it. 

I was connected by ethernet cable and it wasn't able to find drivers. I did some searching on the forums and others were having the same issue. Some people found some tricks to get it to work, but I was not successful. I see you listed your router, what netgear network card are you using? I'm more than willing to go purchase a new network card if I know for sure that it will work.