part of the reason i started trying different distros on my 32-bit computer is that bodhi is based on ubuntu which is dropping 32-bit support as you mentioned. there has been some discussion on the bodhi forum about whether or not there will be a shift to a debian base (perhaps viable until 2038?), but i wanted to look around and see what else was out there. the dropping of 32-bit hadn’t occurred to me when i went looking at manjaro. apparently arch dropped it officially a while back so someone kindly forked it.
@easyt50, that particular laptop is 32-bit (thinkpad T60 with a core two duo and 3 gb of ram). i mostly keep it around to run world community grid results on boinc manager (which also works on old android phones).