Yup, the x32 ABI is pretty neat. For most architectures the transition from 32 bit to 64 bit pointers resulted in reduced performance from the extra cache pressure the bigger pointers caused. In x86-64, though, the extra registers and guaranteed SSE2 meant that you actually saw a speed increase.
Of course, there are performance advantages to bigger pointers too, sometimes. For instance, it can be easier for a garbage collector to identify pointers is the ratio of memory addresses in use to total addresses is small.
Of course, there are performance advantages to bigger pointers too, sometimes. For instance, it can be easier for a garbage collector to identify pointers is the ratio of memory addresses in use to total addresses is small.