Quote:
what I didn't realize (though it makes sense now that I think about it) is that 32bit drivers are completely incompatible with the OS, and if the company that made a particular peripheral doesn't have 64 bit drivers, I'm out of luck.


Nonsense. Yes, you're out of luck, but other operating systems (not just Linux, either) successfully mix 32/64 drivers and programs on such hardware.

Cheers