This might be better as a callback.
Use just the $reg_exUrl
, and do this:
$text = preg_replace_callback($reg_exUrl,function($m) {
if( preg_match("/\.(?:jpe?g|png|gif)$/i",$m[0])) {
return "<img src='".$m[0]."' />";
}
else {
return "<a href='".$m[0]."' rel='nofollow'>".$m[0]."</a>";
}
},$text);