64bit would be better imo, but yes if it is just you that would work fine, enough space on hdd for operating system and (currently) 10Gb of blockchain
bitcoind will run on desktop or server version
so you are saying that the pool software that is available, like stratum or the others, uses bitcoind? I thought bitcoind couldn't keep up with the higher hash rates. I kind of assumed that the pool software had it's own, faster version of bitcoind built in.