Ubuntu RAM question

[ratcreature]

I have bought a new laptop which has 4GB of RAM. I have installed Ubuntu on it, the 32bit version, because their website says that was the recommended one on the download page, but eventually I noticed that it only recognized 3GB of RAM. After googling I found that for it to use 4GB either the 64bit version was needed or that you could install some server kernel packages with something called PAE (?) to extend memory. I did the latter because I didn't want to have to start everything from scratch again, when I had already started to get things customized, and I wasn't sure what the lack of recommendation on Ubuntu's part meant for the 64bit version (like I vaguely remember hearing that in the past some programs didn't work or something).

Anyway, this server kernel package thing did work, so now my laptop sees all my memory, but I'm still wondering about this. In the help forum posts I skimmed the general tenor seemed to be in favor just using 64bit on newer systems that have such processors, and somewhat vehemently too (it was my impression that it was one of the repeat topics everyone is impatient and touchy about?), but then why is the 32bit version still the only recommended one when you download, even in the most recent versions?