Installing SQL Server 2008 32bit on 64bit : WoW64 error
Solution 1:
According to this the 32-bit version of SQL is supported on Windows 7 64-bit.
But you're going to need SQL 2008 with SP1.
If you don't have a piece of SQL media with SP1 already on it then you'll need to make a slipstreamed disk for yourself. Luckily, in SQL 2008 they added the ability to make a slipstream copy with SP1 in it, and MS provides instructions here.
You can get the SQL 2008 SP1 installer here.
HTH