diff --git a/configure b/configure
index d873ee911f..ef162f52d1 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -238,6 +238,7 @@ cd "$currentDir"
 # default parameter values
 #
 platform=`uname`
+platform_machine=`uname  -m`
 haikuGCCVersion=
 haikuGCCMachine=i586-pc-haiku
 haikuStaticLibStdCxx=
@@ -335,6 +336,13 @@ while [ $# -gt 0 ] ; do
 	esac
 done
 
+# check for a 64bit platform
+case "${platform_machine}" in
+	x86_64)	use_32bit=1 ;;
+	*)	echo Assuming 32-bit machine: "$platform_machine"
+		use_32bit=0 ;;
+esac
+
 # detect the build platform
 case "${platform}" in
 	BeOS)	revision=`uname -r`
@@ -348,7 +356,11 @@ case "${platform}" in
 			esac
 			;;
 	Darwin)	buildPlatform=darwin ;;
-	FreeBSD) buildPlatform=freebsd ;;
+	FreeBSD)	buildPlatform=freebsd
+				if [ "$use_32bit" = 1 ] ; then 
+					echo Unsupported platform: FreeBSD ${platform_machine}
+					exit 1 
+				fi	;;
 	Haiku)	buildPlatform=haiku_host ;;
 	Linux)	buildPlatform=linux ;;
 	OpenBSD) buildPlatform=openbsd ;;