Glad this topic has come up, and kudos to Adam for the explanation of
--add-architecture.

Awhile back, I wanted to install 64-bit Google Earth on Debian (and now, on
antiX). It's actually a 32-bit program - I don't get why Google just
doesn't make a 64-bit version. Anyway, after a lot of searching, I found
the following formula, which I can report works very well:

apt-get install lsb-core
apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer (or ubuntu-restricted-extras)

apt-get install ia32-libs (package deprecated, replaced with)...
apt-get install lib32z1 lib32ncurses5

apt-get install googleearth-package
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update
(not as root) make-googleearth-package
sudo gdebi googleearth_6.0.3.2197+1.2.0-1_amd64.deb

The googleearth*.deb file may of course have a different name on your
machine, but will be similar.

cheers,
Robert