IMac 2008, Boot Camp 5, and Windows 7/8 32-bit & 64-bit

I am interested in installing Windows 7 via Boot Camp 5 on my iMac (see sig) but I'm confused as to whether or not my mac is even capable of installing Windows 7 at all. Let me explain.
According to THIS support article, Boot Camp 5 dropped support of Windows 7 32-bit whereas Windows 7 64-bit remains supported alongside the newly supported Windows 8 64-bit. So far, so good. But according to THIS support article (scroll down to "Boot Camp requirements by Mac model" and click on "iMac"), my mac model (iMac 24-inch, Early 2008) only supports Windows 7 32-bit as of Boot Camp 4 and that Windows 7 64-bit and Windows 8 64-bit are not supported for my model. ???? That's the crux of the conundrum I'm facing.
So my question is this: can someone give me a definitive answer as to whether or not my iMac is capable of installing and running Windows 7? What about Windows 8?
My sincere thanks in advance.

The truth is that you can run Windows 7 and Windows 8, in both 32 and 64-bit versions, without any problem (you have a 64-bit processor). The problem is that Apple only supports a 32-bit Windows 7 version for your Mac. Why? Because Apple wanted to drop the Windows 8 support for the computer you are using.
You can see in this page all the Macs compatible with 64-bit Windows editions > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1846 As you can see, your Mac isn't supported, so you can only install a 32-bit Windows 7 version with Boot Camp if you want to run Windows correctly.
I told you at the beggining that you can install any 32 or 64-bit Windows 7 and Windows 8 versions on your Mac because your iMac meets the requirements for both editions. However, you need the Boot Camp drivers to make Windows run properly, and here's where Apple has dropped a lot of computers, making them unusable if you install a version that Apple clasifies as unsupported. Sad but that's true

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