Couple o’ things.  First, the AWE/PAE/etc stuff only allows you to move db_block_buffers/data buffers above and beyond the 3gb limit.  If that’s not the part of the SGA you want to grow, it won’t help.  I’m sure you’ve read it, but Metalink Note:225349.1 speaks to this.  Second, the only way I found to verify the extra memory (beyond the default 2gb) was, indeed, being allocated was to use Task Manager.  In the Process tab, do View > Select Columns and check Virtual Memory Size.  Sort by this VM Size column and you should see the size of the oracle.exe process approach the 3gb limit as the database gets busy.  I never found a way to verify the additional data buffers outside of the SGA.  The Thread Count column is interesting, too, because it can show the approximate number of connections to the database.  But keep in mind that just starting a database under Windows will take somewhere around 6-12 threads based on options selected in the database.

hth,

-joe

http://www.peaceaday.com