64bit processors

Hi
i was reading the whitepaper Comparing 64-Bit Server Processors Hewlett-Packard June 2004

In the Conclusion section the writer says as follows

The drawback to Operton is that little 64-bit software is available today. Thus for any x86 user that needs an immediate 64bit solution,the best choice is Itanium2. There are many 64 bit operating system and applications available 2day on Itanium2 and that processor also run 32bit x86 softwares.

My question is
Is it the case that the softwares that run on itanium2 they cannot run on Operton?
I think the both architectures run the 64 bit and 32 bit application and same softwares can run on both of them. is this correct?
Reply will be highly regarded 🙂

Regards
fani