A. A. (2/15/2013)
Obviously 32 bit OS couldn't "handle" more than that or it would have, and there would not have been a limit. Instead, it let you enable relinquishing control to special programs designed to really handle it.
No, that's not what happened. There were no 'special programs' designed to handle memory that the OS couldn't. Rather additional APIs were added into the OS to circumvent the 32-bit direct addressing limitation. Note, into the OS. There's no politics here, there's just additional APIs in the OS to indirectly address the memory above 4GB, APIs that any application running on that OS could call.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability