Upgraded a while back to the 13-inch, Mid 2009, MBP.Aah yes, plugins. None of the ones I use are 32bit, thankfully.
Speaking of RAM, are you still using the old 17" MBP? What model is it? Mine is the MacBook Pro 4,1 (late 2007 or early 2008, I don't remember which). It can officially only take 4GB, but 6GB works just fine (8GB apparently not).