If the NOAA data are in gribbed format, then WPS will be able to process them, regardless of the version. If they are in another format, you'll need to
convert them to intermediate format to run metgrid.
As a side note, WRF version 3.4 is very old (over 10 years old) and is no longer supported by our group. Unless there is a mandatory reason why you must use that version, we always recommend using the latest version of WRF to avoid known bugs and other issues.
