Itunes cannot access store? Win 7 64bit

Anyone ever run across this issue? I was planning on canceling my television subscription and just supplement what I watch with itunes ($2-3 an episode and there are usually only 1 or 2 shows I watch in any given month on my cable package). Anyways, I try going into the itunes store after last having used it a year or so ago and find that it just hangs at trying to connect with the itunes store. I've tried all sorts of solutions I've found like running as admin, auth/deauthing the comp, winsock reset, double checking firewall permissions. Nothing seems to work. Anyone run across this and have a possible working solution that fixes it?

Yea, I was running iTunes 64 bit version. Should I go 32 to see if that helps?

I did an Apple rage and nuked every last scrap of Apple installed programs on my comp ;P I was primarily trying to get back into iTunes because I was going to terminate my cable TV, but they gave me some no-contract deals and upgraded my equipment.