diff --git a/Doc/distutils/apiref.rst b/Doc/distutils/apiref.rst
index a932fbd387d..65f175f6bee 100644
--- a/Doc/distutils/apiref.rst
+++ b/Doc/distutils/apiref.rst
@@ -1107,6 +1107,7 @@ other utility module.
    For universal binary builds on MacOS X the architecture value reflects
    the univeral binary status instead of the architecture of the current
    processor. For 32-bit universal binaries the architecture is ``fat``, 
+   for 64-bit universal binaries the architecture is ``fat64``, and 
    for 4-way universal binaries the architecture is ``universal``. 
 
    Examples of returned values on MacOS X:
diff --git a/Lib/distutils/util.py b/Lib/distutils/util.py
index 48cc17f6248..e9d29ff49c0 100644
--- a/Lib/distutils/util.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/util.py
@@ -140,9 +140,13 @@ def get_platform ():
                 # 'universal' instead of 'fat'.
 
                 machine = 'fat'
+                cflags = get_config_vars().get('CFLAGS')
 
-                if '-arch x86_64' in get_config_vars().get('CFLAGS'):
-                    machine = 'universal'
+                if '-arch x86_64' in cflags:
+                    if '-arch i386' in cflags:
+                        machine = 'universal'
+                    else:
+                        machine = 'fat64'
 
             elif machine in ('PowerPC', 'Power_Macintosh'):
                 # Pick a sane name for the PPC architecture.