/3gb was used in win2003 x86 to give 3GB RAM to app and 1GB to system. along with AWE you can rock 16GB of ram in 32 bit mode which is quite handy if you have licenses for old win2k3/sql server and you want to bump the speed up (YES both modes work in ESXi!). server licenses don't really get upgrades nor does sql server so you can understand the costs of maximizing old tech that you come into with your job. going from 1.8GB SQL process to 12GB with some system cache reserve or to run apps like log shipping - sweet.