March release, and 64 bit installation

[David Eliezer]

Hi,
     I am about to install GMP for the first time, and I noticed that a new version is due
 out this month.  I'd like to get going quickly, but if 4.2 will be released shortly, I might 
 wait until it is available.  Is there any word on when it will come out?
 
     I tried running configure on my machine, which is an Athlon64.  config.guess labels
 this machine as x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, which makes me fear that it has been misidentified
 as an Itanium, or something.  Worse, when configure is run with this setting, I get the following for
 the ABI settings, in the output
 
 using ABI="32"
       CC="gcc"
       CFLAGS="-g -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -mtune=k8 -march=k8"
       CPPFLAGS=""
       CXX="g++"
       CXXFLAGS="-g -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -mtune=k8 -march=k8"
       MPN_PATH=" x86/k7/mmx x86/k7 x86 generic"
 
 The MPN_PATH makes me think that it is making no use at all of the 64-bit features,
 and that I will get a fairly generic, and slow, install if I ran configure with this, because it 
 says "x86 generic".  Worse, it is not clear to me that "x86 generic" OR "x86_64" is correct 
 for an Athlon chip.  Is this right?  If so, how can I force it to recognize the Athlon, and the 64 bit
 features?
 
     I have held off running the install, because I am not sure that the installer can be run several times, with
 different configurations, and not get confused.  Is it safe to do this?  Should I wait for 4.2?
 
 Thanks for any help you can give me...
 
                                                        David Eliezer