Side node: gcc isn't restricted to Linux, but also available for Windows, using either MingW or Cygwin, as well as almost any other UNIX (HP-UX, *BSD, Solaris, ...).
If you're using i386, it's time to upgrade. The basic i686 architecture has taken over for at least a decade now, covering the vast majority of the 32-bit world of processors. A lot of distros don't support i386 any more because that architecture is missing some important fundamental instructions now depended on for things like IPC.
Your compiler can probably generate code for x86 processors and nothing else. Most compilers aren't configured to generate code for anything except their native platform.
I dont know any command line options you can give to the compiler to figure out the supported mpus but the vendor from who you purchased it should be able to give you that information. So what compiler and version are you using.