I just upgraded the hardware in my linux computer to a Athlon 64 X2 and 5 GB of ram. What kernel should I install to take advantage of the dual core processor and all the ram? I'm currently running kernel-2.6.17.16 on Mandriva 2007.1 Spring and the most ram it sees is 3 GB.

All help is greatly appreciated...

Thanks!

You need one of the smp kernels. Don't know about the memory though.

For the Mandriva 2007.1 version, I believe you needed the kernel-enterprise variant, to allow support for more than 4GB of RAM. I also don't believe that there was a 64-bit kernel-enterprise variant available.

I assume you are running the x86_64 Mandriva version- else you may forget 4+ G of RAM.

No, I'm running the 32 bit version.

So, either install the 64-bit one, or forget utilizing more RAM than what you've got now.
The issue is code specific (memory mapping on 32-er bytecode)- and it applies for ANY OS, not just Linux... see here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/hiltonl/archive/2007...am-problem.aspx
The max. RAM an application is using is 2G, and the rest is reserved by BIOS.
You may even have to install newer mainboard BIOS after upgrading to 64-bit OS, or replace your older chipset/mainboard completely to be able to achieve that...
And in any case, it's highly dubious if you will be able to utilize 5GB of RAM. For 4 GB (full utilization) or 8 GB, the answer is most certainly positive.
5 GB is simply enough not a natural RAM upgrade step- you should have asked before upgrading.