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It is a limitation of 32-Bits OS, upgrade to 64-Bits if you want to see all 4GB of your RAM.

or... Windows 2003 Standard Edition (32-Bits)

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platf...PAE/PAEmem.mspx

Windows XP supports a 4GB address-space, you shouldn't be getting this confused with RAM. Address-space is used to address everything from RAM, the System ROM, APIC(s), PCI devices etc.

What this means is that your copy of XP is allowing 3.25GB of the appropriate address-space to be reserved for addressing RAM, and the remaining address space is mapped for other uses.

The next thing you are probably wondering is why this doesn't happen when you have less RAM? Well, the answer is short:

At startup, the BIOS determines the hardware components that require address space and calculate how much is required for the system. This is then subtracted from the 4GB maximum, and the remainder is allocated to RAM. If there is less RAM then the allocation, then all the RAM is available to the system.

Hope that clears things up.

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