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I understand your reluctance to add cruft to the README, but
given that there's no "configure --64-bit --without-gcc"
that works, I think that adding something to the docs would
be helpful.  There's already a history of documenting
bugs/limitations of the Python build system in the README,
so while I agree with your view that fixing the build system
would be best, adding something to the README is a good
short-term solution until the 64-bit build kinks are fixed
up.  I suggest adding something along the lines of what has
already been done for AIX/HP-UX 64-bit builds, since those
also require unusual steps.  Keep it short like these?:

AIX 5.3: To build a 64-bit version with IBM's compiler, I
used the
        following:

        export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/vacpp/bin
        ./configure --with-gcc="xlc_r -q64"
--with-cxx="xlC_r -q64" \
                    --disable-ipv6 AR="ar -X64"
        make

HP-UX:  When using threading, you may have to add
-D_REENTRANT to the
        OPT variable in the top-level Makefile; reported by
Pat Knight,
        this seems to make a difference (at least for HP-UX
10.20)
        even though pyconfig.h defines it. This seems
unnecessary when
        using HP/UX 11 and later - threading seems to work
"out of the
        box".