If you’re thinking of running a virtual machine, you should check first to see if your processor supports the VT extension. To do so, run the following command in a terminal.
cat /proc/cpuinfo | egrep '(vmx|svm)'
Having the VT extension allows improved virtual machine performance, as well as the ability to run 64-bit virtual machines. Note that some manufacturers have an option to enable/disable VT in the BIOS (which is usually set to disabled), so if you have VT extensions, you may want to check to make sure it’s enabled.
Further Reading: Linux Tip: How to Tell if Your Processor Supports VT
Sorry for the brief post, but it’s late and I’m just making a quick note of this. Note that this works in just about any Linux distro, not just Ubuntu.