What is a good linux distribution whose 64 bit version is fully functional?

I’m currently an Ubuntu user but I’ve grown tired of having to use the 32 bit version when i spent good money to have a 64 bit CPU.

Ever since i switched to Ubuntu i tried to install the amd64 version of the system and found three problems with it: no flash, my torrent client crashes and USB transfer rates suck harder than a black hole made of vacuum cleaners. While the first two are by no means Canonical’s fault, I’m inclined to think that if they wasted less time on pointless interface makeovers and more time on actual bugfixing, the last one would have been fixed at this point.

This whole thing is even more moronic when you consider what issue this is. It’d still be unforgivable if it was another kind of problem, but it’s even worse considering USB drives are by now the standard data transfer units and can reach terabytes of capacity.

The actual issue is, in fact, that the transfer rate slowly decreases even reaching under 1MB/s, which basically means I’m transferring locally at the speed i would ordinarily download from megaupload. Which is a problem that goes completely unnoticed as long as you copy small files, because the decline needs time to become noticeable. So you’ll never notice it until you try copying 2 GBs worth of data to a USB drive, right before leaving to go to school where a friend is waiting for you to give it to them.

I’ve been using Ubuntu for two years now and I’m tired of this bullshit. At least three stable distros, one of which a Long Term Support and this still isn’t fixed, forcing me to sacrifice my CPU’s performance on the altar of their laziness.

So, in short: What distro should i switch to? I’ve been using only Ubuntu but by now i think i have a good grasp of the mechanics behind it. All i really care about is for the system to behave similarly to Ubuntu on the surface, fixing things behind the scenes is pretty much find a tutorial and follow it, if you don’t have some higher level comprehension of system programming. For instance I’d love a service like aptitude, which handles the download and installation of packages without sending me on fetch-quests around the Internet, but i can do without it if it’s necessary.

Also: Can source code packages be compiled on 64 bit systems even if they’re not specifically made for them? All my attempts lasted too little time for me to find out.