If you have an XP era computer, it's probably time to ditch it for something contemporary. Unfortunately, without knowing more about your specs, I couldn't begin to give you a recommendation. And frankly, the only recommendation I would ever want to make is to get the current OS, so in other words, Windows 10. Upgrading to Win8 only means you'll need to upgrade again - soon. Although you can probably upgrade from 7 or 8 to 10 for free as long as you do it by next September. Win10 is awesome, so that's the place to be now.
Tell me what 32bit programs you think you will loose? Two things about that. 1) Many 32 bit programs run just fine on 64bit Windows. That's by design. When they don't, it's more likely that they are too old and rely on OS services that have been discontinued. And 2) there are a lot of freeware alternatives to programs out there. Unless you have some proprietary, vertical software that's so specialized that there is no current freeware equivalent, you'll probably find something better. Only program I've ever actually lost and refused to pay to upgrade has been Microsoft Visio. It used to be reasonably priced, but then they decided to ditch the "home" edition and go strictly "enterprise" with it and jacked the price into the stratosphere. But LibreOffice Draw is a fairly good alternative, so even there I'm not at a total loss. So if you tell me what you fear loosing, maybe I could suggest an alternative...