I would actually recommend getting windows 7 32-bit and don't install any junk software you don't plan on using. I did this for a family member with an oldschool laptop with half a gig of ram and it runs fairly decently. I didn't use any windows updates or any bloatware like nero suite. It runs fairly well... about as well as the windows xp did before it.
Yes, you are right. It did accept 4Gb (2 x 2GB) But, the system shows only 2.72gb. To this when the 512mb ( video memory ) is added total is 3.25 Gb only. Surprisingly cpu-z shows a total of 4 gb with 2gb in 2 slots. Any suggestions? Like I said before, I am using 64bit version of 8.1 evaluation