The bios flip did the trick
http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2008/12/14/attempting-to-load-a-64-bit-application.aspx
And to answer that question, yes, virtualization was disabled in the bios and thus even the vmware workstation wouldn't support a 64bit guest loaded up on a 64bit host.
Rule of thumb... always check the bios first before starting a virtualization project.
Read the complete post at http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2008/12/14/the-bios-flip-did-the-trick.aspx