Pretty much yeah.
The 32 and 64 'bits' refer to the size of the Data bus in the system.
A 64 Bit system will allow you to move double the information of that of a 32 bit system, and so will be twice as fast, but only at processes (like graphics, calculations, database work etc) Not things like basic word etc.
If you want a half decent system, 64 bit is pretty much the standard now adays, and for most new ish (last 3 years up to present day) systems.
32 bit is ok, if you are really on a tight budget, or just need a very basic computer, just for web browsing and light microsoft applications.
- a 32 bit OS will limit you to a maximum of 4GB of RAM in your machine (it cant write any more info than that at once, due to its smaller size bus)
- 64bit the sky is the limit pretty much (obviously theres a limit, but you arent gonna hit it unless you want to spend 100's of 1000's)
Pretty much everything is being developed now a days to be used with 64bit OS's too, and you can run 32Bit processes on 64Bit machines, but very few can do the opposite.
To answer your question, a system can be either, its just what suits you best as to which you pick. Just be aware the 32bit will bottleneck (Hold you back) your systems capabilities.